rHE  JAPANESE  SOCIAL 
ORGANIZATION 

BY 

WILLIAM  EDMUND  LAMPE,  Ph.D., 

MEMBER  OF  THE  ASIATIC  SOCIETY  OF  JAPAN 


Jhrf  ~1L 


THE  JAPANESE  SOCIAL 
ORGANIZATION 


BY 


WILLIAM  EDMUND  LAMPE,  Ph.D., 


MEMBER  OF  THE  ASIATIC  SOCIETY  OF  JAPAN 


Additional  copies  may  be  had  upon  appli- 
cation to 

The  Princeton  University  Press, 

Princeton,  New  Jersey. 


Bound  in  paper,  50  cents ; cloth,  75  cents. 


Printed  by 

Princeton  University  Press 
Princeton,  N.  J. 


Copyright  1910 
by 

William  Edmund  Lampe 


PREFACE. 


This  dissertation,  presented  to  the  Faculty  of  Princeton 
University  in  partial  fulfilment  of  the  requirements  for  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  is  based  upon  a study  of  Japan 
and  the  Japanese  people  during  a residence  of  seven  years  in 
Japan  and  one  year  in  Princeton.  It  would  not  have  been 
undertaken  except  for  the  encouragement  of  several  members 
of  the  Faculty,  particularly  of  Professor  Walter  A.  Wyckoff, 
who  also  suggested  the  subject.  I am  under  especial  obliga- 
tions to  Professor  W.  M.  Daniels,  who  has  advised  me  at  each 
step  and  has  given  me  the  benefit  of  helpful  criticisms  and 
suggestions. 

May  i,  1908. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/japanesesocialor00lamp_0 


THE  JAPANESE  SOCIAL  ORGANIZATION. 


Introduction Page  vii 

CHAPTER  I. — The  Social  History Page  i 


The  Origin  of  the  Japanese. 

A mixed  race. 

1.  The  Japanese  in  their  earliest  history. 

Untrustworthiness  of  much  of  the  early  “history”. 
The  “Records”  and  the  “Chronicles”. 

The  help  of  archaeology. 

a.  The  making  of  the  nation. 

Military  organization  of  society. 

A new  language  and  a new  religion. 

b.  The  family. 

c.  State  of  civilization  and  plane  of  living. 

Agriculture  and  industry. 

Food,  clothing,  dwellings. 

Morality. 

2.  The  Great  Reform — 7th  century. 

a.  Social  classes. 

b.  Contact  with  Korea  and  China. 

Chinese  civilization. 

Buddhism. 

The  effect  on  Shinto. 

c.  Resultant  changes. 

3.  Development  and  assimilation. 

a.  Chinese  civilization  and  culture. 

The  upper  classes. 

Religion  and  ethics. 

Arts  and  literature. 

The  lower  classes. 

Agriculture,  trade,  and  industry. 

b.  Rise  of  the  military  class. 

4.  The  Shogunate  and  Feudalism. 

Reverence  for  the  emperor. 

Civil  wars. 

Culture,  refinement,  and  luxury, 
a.  Feudalism. 

Agriculture  and  industry. 

Literature,  learning  and  art. 


v 


Religion’s  waning  power — Buddhism  and  Shinto. 

Ethics  and  philosophy — Bushido, 

b.  Politics. 

Relations  with  foreign  nations. 

Christianity  interdicted. 

The  country  closed. 

The  shogun’s  power  supreme  in  1603. 

After  1650  a social  standstill. 

CHAPTER  II. — The  Social  Structure Page  43 

Classes  of  Society. 

The  family. 

1.  The  emperor  and  the  kuge. 

2.  Feudal  society. 

a.  Shogun. 

b.  Daimyo. 

c.  Samurai. 

Origin  as  a distinct  class. 

Exponent  of  lofty  principles — The  upper  middle  class  of 
society. 

Inevitable  decay. 

d.  “Common  people”. 

1.  Farmer. 

Attitude  of  government  towards. 

As  producer  and  sharer  in  the  fruit  of  his  labor. 

2.  Artisan  and  artist. 

3.  Merchant. 

Despised  by  the  other  classes. 

Feudal  cities. 

e.  Outcasts. 

3.  Buddhist  priests. 

CHAPTER  III. — The  Changing  Social  Order Page  68 

Recapitulation. 

1.  Changes  due  to  the  opening  of  the  country. 

2.  The  levelling  process. 

Abolition  of  class  dictinctions. 

3.  Japan’s  industrial  future. 

Her  supremacy  in  the  east-Asian  carrying  trade. 

4.  Estimate  of  the  stability  of  the  present  social  order. 

Problems  and  factors  in  their  solution. 

Bibliography 


Page  82 


INTRODUCTION 


So  far  as  I know  this  is  the  first  essay  dealing  with  any  sub- 
ject relating  to  Japan  presented  by  a Western  student  to  a 
University  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  Japan  has 
been  open  now  for  half  a century  but  we  know  less  about  the 
Japanese  than  about  any  other  important  group  of  the  human 
family.  Until  quite  recently  the  Japanese  had  not  studied  their 
own  country  from  the  standpoint  of  Western  scholarship  and 
for  this  reason  they  were  unable  to  give  us  of  the  West  the  data 
we  desired.  This  is,  however,  no  longer  true,  for  in  the  last 
few  years  the  methods  of  the  West  have  been  used  by  certain 
of  the  younger  generation  of  Japanese  scholars  and  they  have 
given  us  valuable  results.  For  a third  of  a century  a small 
group  of  mature  Occidental  scholars,  who  have  resided  in 
Japan,  have  been  at  work  and  they  have  made  important  sci- 
entific contributions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  country.  A 
glance  at  the  bibliography  will  reveal  our  indebtedness  to  them. 
A foreign  student  has  one  advantage  over  the  Japanese  investi- 
gator,— custom  has  not  blunted  his  perceptions  and  he  is  un- 
consciously struck  by  what  is  unique. 

We  devote  much  attention  to  the  social  conditions  of  Europe 
in  past  ages,  but  it  may  really  be  that  we  shall  profit  almost 
as  much  from  a study  of  the  social  system  and  social  conditions 
of  the  Island  Empire  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe.  Her  ter- 
ritory is  small,  but  Japan  has  as  large  an  area  as  have  many  of 
the  nations  of  Europe  and  for  many  centuries  she  has  been 
fully  as  populous  as  the  greatest  European  Powers.  Noting 
what  seems  to  be  her  marvelous  progress  we  turn  to  a study 
of  her  institutions  and  find  them  almost  essentially  different 
from  our  own. 


vii 


Nothing  but  lack  of  knowledge  concerning  this  people,  so 
long  segregated  from  the  remainder  of  the  race,  can  account 
for  the  great  variety  of  opinions  held  concerning  them.  Some 
fail  to  recognize  that  they  are  people  fundamentally  like  our- 
selves. For  example,  Knapp  says:  “Japan  is  unquestionably 
the  unique  nation  of  the  globe, — the  land  of  dream  and  enchant- 
ment, the  land  which  could  hardly  differ  more  from  our  own 
were  it  located  on  another  planet,  its  people  not  of  this  world”.* 
But  in  my  opinion  Shylock’s  utterance  as  to  the  identity  of  hu- 
man nature  in  Jew  and  Gentile  might  as  truthfully  apply  to  the 
essential  likeness  of  the  Japanese  and  ourselves.  Others  would 
have  us  believe  that  it  is  “impossible  for  foreigners  to  under- 
stand the  operation  of  the  mind  of  the  Japanese  and  equally 
difficult  for  them  to  understand  ours”,f  as  if  there  were  some 
convolutions  in  their  brains  that  are  not  in  ours.  The  truth  is 
that  Japan  existed  before  we  discovered  it  and  the  Japanese 
have  worked  out  some  important  problems  independently  of 
the  West,  but  just  as  Darwin’s  studies  led  him  to  see  more 
clearly  “the  close  similarity  of  the  mind  of  man,  to  whatever 
race  he  may  belong”,  so  study  of  the  Japanese  shows  that  they 
have  been  and  are  now  grappling  with  the  same  problems  as 
we  are.  After  all,  “man  is  always  and  everywhere  the  same”. 
Relatives  who  have  long  been  separated  and  whose  develop- 
ment has  been  different  have  again  met  face  to  face. 

If  we  are  ever  to  have  a complete  social  theory  we  need  the 
data  furnished  by  Japan’s  social  history.  Hearn  is  one  of 
those  who  would  say  that  we  are  not  yet  ready  for  this:  “No 
work  fully  interpreting  that  life, — no  work  picturing  Japan 
within  and  without,  historically  and  socially,  psychologically 
and  ethically, — can  be  written  for  at  least  another  fifty  years”.:}: 
This  contention  is  that  it  is  useless  at  present  to  attempt  to 
really  understand  Japan.  The  better  opinion  seems  to  me  that 
of  Knox,  who  says : “Japan  is  known  to  those  who  would 

* Feudal  and  Modern  Japan , Vol.  i,  p.  i. 

t G.  G.  Hubbard,  The  Japanese  Nation,  Smithsonian  Report  for  1895, 
P-  673. 

t Japan:  An  Interpretation,  p.  3. 

viii 


study  it  as  it  has  never  been  known  to  its  own  people  in  the 
past.  It  would  seem  then  an  affected  humility  to  profess  that 
the  West  cannot  understand  the  East,  for  ....  there  is  nothing 
inscrutable,  nothing  even  mysterious,  nothing  to  lead  us  to 
conclude  that  the  Japanese  are  other  than  men  of  like  pas- 
sions with  ourselves  but  formed  in  a different  environment  and 
educated  in  a different  atmosphere”.* 

This  study  aims  to  set  forth  the  fundamental  characteristics 
of  the  Japanese  social  structure.  It  is  not  a prophecy,  nor  is  it 
primarily  an  exposition  of  the  forces  now  at  work;  its  purpose 
throughout  is  to  elucidate  the  elements  of  essential  strength  and 
weakness  in  the  social  organization. 

The  Japan  of  to-day  owes  much  to  China,  and  to  understand 
Japanese  institutions  some  knowledge  of  China  is  necessary. 
Again,  in  Japan  many  of  the  social  ideas  of  China,  political,  in- 
tellectual, and  religious,  have  been  worked  out,  but  in  a different 
environment.  Thus,  what  I have  written  may  throw  some 
light  on  general  social  conditions  in  the  East  outside  of  Japan. 

* Japanese  Life  in  Town  and  Country,  p.  5. 


ix 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Social  History. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  JAPANESE. 

Were  we  able  to  speak  with  assurance  regarding  the  origin  of 
the  Japanese  people1  many  steps  in  their  social  evolution  would 
be  more  easily  and  better  understood.  The  oldest  traditions 
are  that  “the  divine  ancestors  descended  from  heaven  to  the 
earth”.  The  facts  in  the  case  seem  to  be  that  there  were  sev- 
eral streams  of  immigration  from  the  west  and  south  to  the 
land  we  now  call  Japan.  Those  who  passed  through  Korea  on 
their  way  thither  came  from  their  ancestral  home  somewhere  in 
the  north  of  Central  Asia,2  while  a second  stream,  of  South- 
Asian  immigrants,  were  drifted  to  Japan  by  the  “Japan  Cur- 
rent”. When  these  people  of  Mongolian  and  Malay  origin  ar- 
rived they  found  the  Ainu  there  before  them. 

According  to  the  Ainu  tradition,  when  their  forefathers  came 
from  the  northeast  islands  (Kuriles)  they  found  the  land  al- 
ready inhabited  by  the  Koropok-guru,  a numerous  people  who 

1 This  question  has  been  examined  from  many  different  points  of 
view.  Siebold  has  studied  it  from  an  archaeological  standpoint ; Milne 
has  drawn  important  conclusions  based  on  geological  research ; Blackis- 
ton  has  pointed  out  “zoological  indications  of  ancient  connection  of 
the  Japanese  Islands  with  the  Continent” ; Baelz  has  used  the  anthro- 
pological method ; and  Parker  and  Chamberlain  have  approached  it 
from  the  the  philological  side.  The  results  of  the  studies  of  these 
and  other  scholars  working  along  similar  lines  are  to  be  found  for  the 
most  part  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan. 

2 F.  Brinkley,  Japan  in  History,  Literature,  and  Art,  Vol.  I,  p.  18. 

Ethnologists  are  agreed  that  the  predominant  element  of  the  Japanese 

race  came  to  Japan  by  way  of  Korea  from  that  part  of  Asia  which  lies 
north  of  China.  W.  G.  Aston,  Shinto,  p.  i. 

The  new-comers  were  a “Mongolian  race  resembling  the  Chinese  and 
Koreans”. 

I 


lived  in  conelike  huts,  built  over  holes  dug  in  the  earth.  The 
Ainu  have  no  written  language,  but  their  oral  tradition  is  cor- 
roborated by  the  Japanese  chronicles  which  speak  several  times 
of  “earth-spiders”,  or  people  living  in  the  earth.3  The  Ainu 
claim  that  they  exterminated  these  pit-dwellers.4 

Who  the  Ainu  were  is  not  known.5  About  fifteen  thousand 
of  them  still  live  in  Hokkaido.  A comparison  of  the  Ainu  and 
Japanese  languages  shows  that  they  have  nothing  in  common. 
Physically  they  are  sturdier  than  the  Japanese  and  they  are 
probably  the  hairiest  race  in  the  world.  Scholars  are  generally 
agreed  that  they  came  from  the  north,  probably  by  way  of 
Saghalin,  which  at  Lat.  520  N.  is  separated  from  the  mainland 
of  Asia  by  a distance  of  only  about  five  miles.  In  the  course 
of  time  the  Ainu  peopled  the  entire  territory  now  known  as 
Japan.  Before  the  Japanese  could  make  the  islands  their 
home  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  conquer  these  Ainu.  At 
first  the  Ainu  bravely  resisted  the  invaders  but  they  were 
driven  northward  by  degrees.  Marriage  certainly  took  place 
between  conquerors  and  conquered  and  this  resulted  in  an  in- 
fusion of  Ainu  blood  into  Japanese  veins.6 

3 There  seems  to  be  little  doubt  that  ages  ago  such  people  lived  in 
at  least  northern  Japan.  There  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  northern 
island,  Hokkaido,  what  some  claim  to  be  the  remains  of  the  living 
places  of  these  pit-dwellers.  On  the  whole  it  is  more  easy  to  believe 
than  to  question  that  there  were  such  “pigmies”  living  in  Japan  in 
early  ages.  E.  g.,  it  would  be  difficult  to  explain  otherwise  the  bits  of 
pottery  occasionally  found,  for  the  Ainu  did  not  know  the  art  of 
pottery.  For  fuller  discussion  of  this  subject  see  the  writings  of  Prof. 
Koganei,  of  Tokyo  University,  and  chaps.  1 and  2 of  the  Political  Ideas 
of  Modern  Japan  by  Kiyoshi  Kawakami. 

4 They  are  believed  to  be  represented  to-day  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Saghalin,  the  Kuriles,  and  southern  Kamschatka.  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p. 
35- 

5 Griffis  maintains  that  they  were  Aryans,  but  he  stands  almost  alone 
in  his  contention.  Cf.  The  Japanese  Nation  in  Evolution,  p.  1,  “The 
Ainu,  a white  race  of  people,  speaking  an  Aryan  tongue,”  ibid.,  p.  48. 
It  is  more  likely  that  if  the  Japanese  have  any  Aryan  blood  it  came  with 
the  people  from  the  south. 

6 “A  migrating  race  is  a conquering  race.  In  all  migrations  the 


2 


In  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  Korean  and 
Chinese  scholars  and  artisans  came  to  Japan,  occasionally  in 
great  numbers.  These  were  absorbed  into  the  Japanese  race, 
leaving  on  it  some  faint  traces  of  the  amalgamation.7  Some  of 
the  best  families  of  Japan  are  proud  to  be  able  to  trace  their 
lineage  to  some  remote  Chinese  or  even  Korean  ancestor. 

The  one  thing  that  is  clear  is  that  the  Japanese  are  not  a 
pure  race.  In  them  is  a mixture8  of  Malay,  Mongolian,  Ainu, 
and  perhaps  other  blood.  After  a stable  racial  amalgam  had 
been  produced,  from  time  to  time  new  and  different  branches 
were  grafted  upon  this  parent  stock.  The  result  has  been  the 
production  of  an  improved  race,  for  the  Japanese  are  only  one 
example  shown  by  history  of  the  good  effect  produced  by  the 
mixture  of  racial  units  which  are  somewhat  alike  intellectually 
and  physically.9 

males  of  the  conquering  race  cross  with  the  females  of  the  conquered 
race,  and  not  vice  versa”.  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  233. 
Certainly  there  is  nothing  to  justify  such  statements  as  that  of  Griffis, 
“the  mass  of  the  Japanese  people  to-day  are  substantially  of  Ainu 
stock”.  Mikado’s  Empire,  p.  35. 

Prof.  Chamberlain  says  that  “so  far  as  blood  is  concerned  the 
Japanese  have  been  little,  if  at  all,  affected  by  Ainu  influence”.  Things 
Japanese,  p.  18. 

“The  basic  stock  of  the  Japanese  is  without  doubt  Mongolian”. 
Kawakami,  Political  Ideas,  p.  11. 

’Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p.  38. 

8 “The  offspring  of  a mixed  race  obey  the  tendency,  first  demon- 
strated by  Galton  in  his  studies  on  heredity,  to  revert  to  the  parent 
types  and  not  to  form  middle  types.”  Giddings,  Principles,  p.  .233. 

Among  the  Japanese  to-day  there  are  several  distinct  types.  It  is 
frequently  remarked  that  the  present  Emperor  is  of  a striking  Malay 
type.  At  first  glance  it  is  not  easy  even  for  those  who  have  spent 
many  years  in  the  Orient  to  distinguish  certain  of  the  Japanese  from 
Chinese. 

9 “The  crossings  of  varieties  that  are  not  too  unlike  is  often  bene- 
ficial. Mixed  races,  after  natural  selection  has  eliminated  the  weak- 
lings, are  taller,  stronger,  more  prolific,  and  more  adaptable  than  pure 
races.  Anthropologists  differ  in  regard  to  the  limits  within  which 
cross  breeding  is  advantageous”.  Giddings,  Principles,  p.  324. 


3 


The  Japanese  in  Their  Earliest  History. 

The  earliest  Japanese  knew  nothing  of  the  art  of  writing  and 
the  events  of  thirteen  centuries  were  preserved  solely  by  oral 
tradition.  Japanese  investigators  are  disposed  to  think  that  the 
use  of  writing  was  imported  from  China  one  or  two  centuries 
prior  to  the  Christian  era;  Western  scholars  almost  without 
exception  place  this  date  at  least  three  centuries  later.  At  any 
rate,  the  earliest  historical  records  suffered  almost  total  destruc- 
tion by  fire  at  the  time  of  the  downfall  of  the  Soga  family  in 
A.  D.  645,  and  do  not  seem  to  have  exercised  any  appreciable  in- 
fluence upon  subsequent  annals.  Our  reliance  for  informa- 
tion about  the  history  of  Japanese  antiquity  has  to  be  placed 
upon  the  Kojiki  and  Nihongi.10 

The  Kojiki,  or  “Records  of  Ancient  Matters”,  was  dictated 
by  one  Hide-no-Are  and  was  completed  in  A.  D.  71 1 or  712. 
This,  the  earliest  Japanese  document,  has  preserved  for  us  more 
fully  than  any  other  book  the  mythology,  the  manners,  the 
language,  and  the  traditional  history  of  ancient  Japan.  Its 
“history”  stops  at  the  year  A.  D.  628. 

The  Nihongi,  or  “Chronicles  of  Japan”,  second  only  in  value 
to  the  “Records”,  was  completed  in  A.  D.  720  and  carries  the 
history  down  to  A.  D.  700.  Yasumaro,  to  whom  Hide-no-Are 
dictated  the  “Records”,  was  one  of  the  compilers  or  authors  of 
the  “Chronicles”.  The  “Records”  wisely  has  no  chronology, 
but  the  “Chronicles”  pretends  to  give  the  exact  month  and  day 
for  nearly  every  event  recorded. 

The  general  scope  of  the  two  histories  is  the  same,  but  the 
language  of  the  later  one  and  its  method  of  treating  the  national 
traditions  stand  in  notable  contrast  to  the  unpretending  simpli- 
city of  the  older  work.  Soon  after  the  completion  of  the 
“Records”,  most  of  the  salient  features  of  distinctive  Japanese 
nationality  were  buried  under  a superincumbent  mass  of 
Chinese  culture.11  While  the  “Records”  is  to  a very  large  ex- 

“Department  of  Education  of  Japan,  History  of  the  Japanese  Em- 
pire, p.  1. 

nB.  H.  Chamberlain,  Introduction  to  the  Kojiki,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  X, 
Supplement,  passim. 


4 


tent  pure  Japanese  the  style  of  the  “Chronicles”  is  completely 
Chinese.12  The  concessions  made  to  Chinese  notions  in  the 
“Chronicles”  went  far  toward  satisfying  minds  trained  on 
Chinese  models,  while  at  the  same  time  the  reader  had  his  re- 
spect for  the  old  native  emperors  increased,  and  was  enabled 
to  preserve  some  sort  of  belief  in  the  native  gods.13  These 
two  works  are  attempts  to  harmonize  a large  body  of  frequently 
irreconcilable  mythical  material  in  existence  in  A.  D.  720. 14 

Both  of  these  “histories”  purport  to  give  the  actual  history 
of  Japan  from  the  year  660  B.  C.  when  the  first  Emperor, 
Jimmu,  “having  subdued  and  pacified  the  savage  Deities,  and 
extirpated  the  unsubmissive  people,  dwelt  at  the  palace  of  Kash- 
iwabara”.15  “The  authenticity  of  the  greater  part  of 
ancient  Japanese  history  down  to  about  A.  D.  400 
is  not  acknowledged  by  Occidental  authorities,  but  it  is 
affirmed  by  native  historians  and  has  been  officially  recognized 
by  the  government”.16  Nearly  all  educated  Japanese  of  the 
present  day  are  sceptical  concerning  the  old  mythology  and  re- 
ject or  rather  ignore  the  legends  of  the  gods,  but  implicitly  be- 
lieve the  legends  of  the  emperors  from  Jimmu  downwards.17 
Western  scholars  are  almost  unanimously  of  the  opinion  that 

“E.  M.  Satow,  The  Revival  of  Pure  Shinto,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  Ill, 
Appendix,  p.  19. 

“This,  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  “Chronicles”  has  always  excelled 
the  “Records”  in  popular  favor,  is  important,  but  it  is  not  in  place  to 
discuss  it  here. 

14W.  G.  Aston,  Shinto,  p.  2. 

15  Kojiki,  Vol.  II,  Sec.  50. 

“Seiji  Hishida,  The  International  Position  of  Japan  as  a Great 
Power,  p.  41. 

“The  ages  of  the  monarchs  from  Jimmu  down  are  given  in  the 
‘Digest  of  the  Imperial  Pedigree’,  a work  published  by  the  Imperial 
Japanese  Government  in  1877,  and  therefore  carrying  with  it  the 
weight  of  authority”.  Chamberlain,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  X,  p.  368. 

“The  interval  covered  by  the  reigns  of  the  seven  sovereigns  who 
succeeded  the  second  was  four  hundred  and  fifty  years,  but  beyond  the 
fact  that  they  succeeded  to  the  throne  the  records  are  almost  alto- 
gether silent.  The  early  records  are  only  of  rulers,  and  often  the 
people  are  not  even  in  the  background  of  the  picture. 


5 


there  is  no  authentic  history  before  A.  D.  461,  while  some  who 
are  most  entitled  to  express  an  opinion  put  this  date  even  a cen- 
tury or  more  later.  The  iconoclasm  of  Westerners  has  given 
courage  to  Japanese  scholars,  a few  of  whom  have  dared  to 
question  the  credibility  of  their  ancient  history  as  we  now  have 
it.  It  needs  bolstering  up  at  too  many  points  and  there  is  rea- 
son to  believe  that  within  a few  decades,  after  it  has  been 
studied  by  native  scholars  according  to  the  canons  of  modern 
criticism,  their  earliest  “history”  will  be  rewritten. 

From  early  times  there  had  been  a hereditary  corporation  of 
reciters,  called  Katari-Be,  and  we  can  be  certain  that  in  these 
oldest  documents  we  have  the  earliest  traditions  of  the  Japan- 
ese race.  Even  the  myths  and  legends  throw  a useful  light  on 
the  beliefs  and  institutions  of  the  age  when  they  became  cur- 
rent. Archaeology,  too,  contributes  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
earliest  Japanese  society,  and  the  contents  of  the  barrows,  or 
mounds  of  earth  heaped  over  the  remains  of  the  dead,  and  the 
dolmens,  or  stone  chambers  used  at  times  of  burial,  throw  im- 
portant light  on  the  early  social  history. 

The  groups  of  people  living  in  Kyushu  in  the  South,  in 
Izumo  in  the  West,  and  in  Yamato  in  the  East,  probably  repre- 
sented respectively  the  immigrations  already  referred  to  from 
South  Asia,  and  from  North  Central  Asia  through  Korea,  and 
the  Ainu,  whoever  they  may  have  been.  Although  the  gen- 
eral opinion  is  that  the  people  in  Izumo  were  earlier  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  which  of  the  two  streams  of  immigration  first 
reached  Japan.  The  warrior-statesman  Jimmu  Tenno,18  first 
subdued  the  people  living  in  Kyushu,  and  became  their  chief 
and  leader.  He  then  gathered  his  followers  and  leading  them 
northward  and  eastward,19  conquering  a region  here  and  sub- 

“This  was  a posthumous  name  given  to  him  more  than  a thousand 
years  after  the  date  which  Japanese  historians  assign  for  his  decease. 

19At  the  age  of  forty-five  he  addressed  his  elder  brothers  and  child- 
ren saying  “ From  the  date  when  our  Heavenly  Ancestor  descended 

until  now  it  is  over  1,792,470  years.  But  the  remote  regions  do  not 
yet  enjoy  the  blessings  of  Imperial  rule.  Every  town  has  been  allowed 
to  have  its  lord,  and  every  village  its  chief,  who,  each  one  for  himself, 


6 


duing  a chief  there,  by  fifteen  years  of  desperate  struggle 
carved  out  for  himself  an  empire  which  he  held  together  by  the 
weight  of  his  sword.  His  territory,  which  was  the  “fruit  of 
conquest  pure  and  simple’’,20  did  not  include  more  than  one  half 
of  the  area  of  the  main  island.21  Even  within  this  territory  his 
sway  was  somewhat  limited  and  disputed.  One  tradition  was 
that  the  conquered  peoples  acknowledged  their  consanguinity 
with  their  conquerors  from  Kyushu,22  but  this  is  at  best  a re- 
spectable fiction  originated  centuries  later  to  explain  the  unity 
of  the  Japanese  people.  While  we  may  reasonably  doubt  if 
there  was  any  blood-tie,  the  outcome  was  at  all  events  one  peo- 
ple, and  there  were  no  longer  several  centers  of  governmental 
activity.  From  this  time  the  “assemblies  of  the  gods”23, 
whether  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  came  to  an  end.  These  assem- 
blies may  have  been  beautified  myths  of  early  tribal  assemblies 
which  ceased  with  the  advent  of  civil  government  under 
Jimmu.24 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  process  of  amalgama- 
tion was  a slow  one.  For  centuries  the  groups  were  held  to- 
gether only  by  the  military  organization  of  Jimmu  and  his  suc- 
cessors. The  most  that  can  be  said  is  that  these  conquerors  be- 
came dominant  and  that  gathered  under  them  was  a confedera- 
tion of  groups  of  people  more  or  less  unlike.  Rival  chiefs  were 
kept  in  subjection  and  the  authority  of  the  rulers  among  the 
conquerors  was  at  no  time  seriously  disputed  by  those  who  were 
now  consciously  amalgamated  into  a new  state. 

Meanwhile  forces, — language,  religion  and  external  pres- 

makes  division  of  territory  and  practices  mutual  aggression  and  con- 
flict  Nihongi,  Aston’s  Translation,  p.  no.  (In  Transactions  of 

the  Japan  Society  of  London.) 

“Kanichi  Asakawa,  The  Early  Institutional  Life  of  Japan,  p.  30. 

21  Ibid.  p.  45. 

22Cf.  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p.  31. 

23  History  of  Empire  of  Japan,  p.  26. 

“Possibly  Izumo,  Yamato  and  Kyushu  are  merely  names  of  the 
ancestral  homes  of  the  three  leading  tribes  which  confederated  under 
Jimmu  and  became  the  Japanese  nation. 


7 


sure, — were  at  work  unifying  all  the  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  speech  of  the  people  became  uniform.25  There  is 
not  even  the  faintest  trace  of  any  earlier  language.  Whatever 
lingual  divergencies  there  may  have  been  disappeared  entirely 
or  became  part  of  the  new  tongue.-'8 

At  some  point  in  this  development  of  a common  speech  a new 
religion  became  prevalent.  This  indigenous  religion,  called 
Shinto,  became  the  religion  of  the  people  who  formed  the  new 
nation  and  remained  their  only  religion  for  many  centuries. 
It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  say  that  the  origin  of  Shinto  was  due 
to  the  political  necessity  of  glorifying  the  ruler  by  claiming  his 
divine  descent,  but  this  cult,  a combined  nature  and  ancestor 
worship,  has  always  been  closely  connected  with  this  political 
theory,  now  upholding  it  and  in  turn  upheld  by  it. 

As  the  nation  grew  stronger  and  more  unified  the  unsubjuga- 
ted aborigines  were  gradually  pushed  farther  and  farther  north- 
ward. Certainly  this  pressure  from  without  of  opposing  peo- 
ple, not  fully  subdued  for  many  centuries,  was  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  in  holding  together  this  early  empire.27 

It  is  but  natural  that  this  early  society,28  whose  birth  was  syn- 

“Language  always  tends  toward  closer  union.  “Identity  of  language 
and  custom  and  tradition  tends  always  to  create  identity  of  race.” 
Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  254. 

“So  far  it  has  not  been  possible  to  assign  a definite  place  to  the  Japa- 
nese language  in  any  family  of  languages.  It  is  usually  included  in  the 
so-called  Altaic  group.  D.  Thompson  ( The  Probable  Origin  of  the 
Japanese  Language,  Japan  Evangelist,  Vol.  X,  pp.  336-343)  points  out 
strong  resemblances  between  Japanese  and  the  Semitic  languages. 

There  are  not  and  have  not  been  any  dialects  in  Japan,  although  here 
and  there  there  are  marked  differences  of  pronunciation.  The  lan- 
guage early  became  definite  and  fixed,  and  pure  Japanese  has  under- 
gone very  little  change  during  the  ages  that  have  followed. 

27  Cf.  Fairbanks,  Introduction  to  Sociology,  p.  III. 

“We  are  not  dealing  with  a people  of  the  antiquity  of  China  or  even 
of  Korea,  for  the  first  society  of  Japan  of  which  we  have  any  real 
knowledge  does  not  much  antedate  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 
Of  course  it  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  throughout  that  we  are  discussing 
Japanese  society,  without  reference  to  the  customs  or  institutions  of 
the  tribes  or  races  who  united  and  became  the  Japanese  people.  The 


chronous  with  military  conquest  and  victory  and  whose  very 
existence  depended  upon  its  ability  to  maintain  itself  by  mili- 
tary force,  was  very  unstable.  The  personal  bond  between 
many  of  its  members  must  have  been  very  loose  indeed.  There 
was  as  yet  no  family  and  relations  between  the  sexes  were  ir- 
regular and  transient.  There  were  no  wedding  ceremonies  and 
for  centuries  cohabitation  alone  constituted  matrimony.  Mar- 
riage was  subjected  to  few  restrictions.29  Mistress,  wife  and 
concubine  were  almost  synonymous  terms.  A husband  incur- 
red no  obligations  toward  the  wife  and  he  might  form  as  many 
different  unions  as  fancy  prompted.  A married  couple  lived 
apart,  the  husband  simply  paying  periodical  visits  to  the  home 
of  the  wife.  As  the  children  were  brought  up  by  the  mother, 
who  also  gave  them  their  names,  it  was  possible  for  one  house- 
hold of  a man  to  remain  in  entire  ignorance  of  another’s  exis- 
tence.30 Strange  unions  were  sometimes  formed.  Only 
children  of  the  same  mother  might  not  intermarry.  To  be 
sons  of  the  same  father  carried  no  obligation  of  friendship  or 
sympathy.  In  the  course  of  time  there  came  about  an  ar- 
rangement by  which  one  wife  was  singled  out  of  several  as  the 
legitimate  wife,  but  it  was  not  until  the  Code  of  701  that  wife 
and  concubine  were  distinguished.31 

Women  played  a very  important  part  in  this  era  of  Japanese 
history.  A number  of  the  rulers  were  women32  and  women 
chieftans  are  often  mentioned.  But,  despite  certain  prac- 

importance  of  such  factors  is  by  no  means  overlooked,  but  it  is  not 
likely  that  much  light  will  ever  be  thrown  upon  them. 

29 History  of  Empire  of  Japan , p.  65. 

30  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  pp.  61  seq. 

31  On  this  point  cf.  Chamberlain’s  Introduction  to  the  Kojiki,  p.  40, 
and  Asakawa,  Early  Institutional  Life , pp.  51-55. 

Concubinage  still  exists  and  is  indirectly  sanctioned  by  the  new  Civil 
Code,  Arts.  827  and  728.  Cf.  Clement,  Handbook  of  Modern  Japan, 
pp.  181  seq. 

* Since  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  no  empress  has  sat  upon 
the  throne.  The  Constitution  provides  in  Article  2 that  the  “Imperial 
Throne  shall  be  succeeded  to  by  Imperial  male  descendants”. 


9 


tices  characteristic  of  matriarchal  society,33  we  are  not  justi- 
fied in  saying  that  the  Japanese  passed  through  matriarchal  to 
patriarchal  society.  It  is  true  that  at  first  patria  potestas  was 
lax  and  society  was  only  quasi-patriarchal  in  form ; but  the 
control  of  his  family,  or  families,  was  always34  in  the  hands 
of  the  husband. 

As  might  be  inferred  from  what  has  been  said,  the  Japanese 
appeared  upon  the  stage  as  a people  already  civilized.  They 
were  not  only  acquainted  with  primitive  agricultural  methods 
but  immediately  became  an  agricultural  nation.  Rice  was 
cultivated  in  prehistoric  times,35  and  even  in  the  legendary 
history,  when  Susanoo  quarreled  with  his  elder  sister,  the 
Sun-Goddess,  he  laid  waste  several  of  her  rice  fields.  Al- 
though depending  somewhat  upon  hunting  and  fishing  for 
subsistence,  as  has  been  the  case  throughout  their  whole  his- 

33  E.  g.,  Separate  residence  and  the  rearing  of  children  by  the  mother, 
v.  supra. 

Probably  it  is  their  zeal  in  defence  of  a particular  theory  of  the 
development  of  society  which  has  led  some  sociologists  to  say  that  sep- 
arate residence  is  the  most  important  relic  of  the  transitional  state 
from  the  maternal  to  the  paternal  family.  Asakawa,  Early  Institutional 
Life,  is  confronted  with  this  difficulty  in  the  case  of  Japan  when  he 
states  (p.  57)  that  “the  husband  and  his  wives  all  lived  apart  from  one 
another”  and  explains  by  saying  (p.  58)  that  “matriarchy  had  left  its 
traces  here  later  than  is  usual  in  a patriarchal  community”.  “The 
social  life  of  Japan  in  A.D.  500  was  patriarchal  from  top  to  bottom, 
from  state  to  family,  but  at  the  same  time  fiction  had  made  inroads 
into  it  far  and  deep.”  p.  60. 

Even  to-day  it  is  provided  by  law  that  a man  may  enter  the  family 
of  his  wife,  taking  her  name  and  keeping  up  the  succession  of  her 
family. 

“In  the  story  of  creation  the  creator  required  the  creatress  to  make 
amends  for  having  spoken  first. 

3SNihongi,  pp.  48,  49,  86. 

“The  discovery  of  the  cereals  suitable  for  food  was  hardly  less  im- 
portant than  the  discovery  of  animals  which  could  be  domesticated ; 
and  it  marked  an  immense  advance  beyond  the  latter  discovery,  because 
it  encouraged  a settled  life,  and  removed  man  still  farther  from  sub- 
jection to  the  vicissitudes  of  nature....  Cereal  food  is  really  the  basis 
of  civilization.”  Fairbanks,  Sociology,  pp.  79,  80. 


10 


tory,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  they  passed  through  a 
hunting  stage.  Nor  were  they  ever  a pastoral  people;  domes- 
ticated animals  do  not  figure  in  their  early  life;  cattle  were 
introduced  late  in  the  history,  and  sheep,  goats  and  swine  have 
always  been  almost  altogether  unknown.  The  case  of  the 
Japanese  confirms  the  view  of  Bucher36  that  we  must  shake  off 
the  idea  that  “every  people  shall  have  been  hunters  or  nomads 
before  passing  over  to  settled  agriculture”. 

While  they  were  essentially  an  agricultural  people  certain  in- 
dustrial arts  had  already  been  highly  developed.  They  knew 
how  to  work  in  metals,  to  make  pottery,  and  to  build  ships  and 
bridges.  The  origin  of  the  art  of  brewing  intoxicating  drinks 
dates  back  to  time  immemorial.37  Before  real  history  began 
there  were  hereditary  corporations,  essentially  branches  of  the 
government,  of  shield  and  sword  makers,  jewellers,  clay-work- 
ers, and  other  artisans.  Indeed  so  much  importance  was  at- 
tached to  industrial  occupations  and  so  many  handicrafts  are 
enumerated  that  “history  seems  to  indicate  that  the  early 
settlers,  the  progenitors  of  the  Japanese  proper,  were  an  in- 
dustrial people  rather  than  an  agricultural”.38 

Although  the  family  had  not  yet  taken  on  fixed  form,  there 
was  more  or  less  division  of  labor  among  the  men  and  wo- 
men.39 While  both  took  part  in  the  work  of  tilling  the  ground 
the  men  brought  in  flesh  and  fish  for  food  and  the  women 
prepared  the  food  and  made  clothes  of  woven  material.40 

The  several  garments  worn  by  the  “deities”,  probably  tribal 
ancestors,  are  mentioned  in  the  earliest  records.  The  ancient 
Japanese  were  well  clothed.  Wearing  apparel  was  made  of 
hempen  cloth,  and  of  fibre  made  of  the  inner  bark  of  the  paper 

36 Industrial  Evolution,  p.  152. 

37  Nihongi,  pp.  52,  56. 

38  Brinkley,  Vol.  VII,  p.  69. 

39  “The  stability  of  the  family  increases  as  the  division  of  labor 
between  the  sexes  becomes  perfect.”  Giddings,  Principles  of  Sociology, 
p.  266. 

40  “The  people  were  prosperous ; and  tribute,  or  tax,  on  the  produce 
of  the  chase  was  levied  upon  the  males  and  on  domestic  handiwork 
upon  the  females.”  Kojiki.  Sec.  LXVII,  p.  182. 


11 


mulberry.  As  substitute  for  articles  unprocurable  in  certain 
districts  for  offering  at  the  shrines,  cloth  was  used  and  thus 
was  in  a sense  the  currency  of  the  day.41  Each  official  rank 
had  its  distinct  costume.  Straw  rain  coats  and  broad-brimmed 
hats  to  protect  against  the  inclemencies  of  the  weather  were  in 
use  amongst  the  peasants.42  They  were  more  fond  of  orna- 
ments than  their  descendants  of  later  generations,  for  jewels 
and  precious  stones  are  found  in  their  graves.43  Habits  of 
personal  cleanliness  existed  in  germ  in  the  earliest  times. 
Mention  is  made  of  the  bathing  women  of  one  of  the  emperors 
while  he  was  an  infant.  Frequent  reference  is  made  to  the 
people  bathing  in  rivers44  and  of  putting  on  fresh  garments. 

They  did  not  live  in  towns  or  villages  but  in  small  groups, 
and  many  isolated  dwellings.  That  there  were  separate  build- 
ing for  special  purposes45  and  that  houses  were  abandoned 
after  a person  had  died  in  them  is  evidence  that  their  houses 
were  the  rudest  kinds  of  structures.  Stone  was  never  used 
and  what  was  put  together  of  wood  was  of  extreme  simplicity. 
As  late  as  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  the  upper  classes 
were  content  to  live  in  log  huts  tied  together  with  wild-vine 
ligatures.46  Even  the  palace  of  the  sovereign  was  a wooden 
hut,  the  whole  frame-work  of  which  was  tied  together  with 
cords.47  It  is  important  for  us  to  note  here  that  the  architec- 
ture of  these  earliest  buildings,  of  which  good  descriptions 

“Aston,  Shinto,  p.  213. 

42  Chamberlain’s  Introduction  to  the  Kojiki,  pp.  30,  31. 

43  D.  Murray,  The  Story  of  Japan,  p.  88. 

“From  the  myth  which  represents  the  creator  as  washing  in  the  sea 
the  inference  that  the  Japanese  have  always  been  cleanly  in  body  is 
perhaps  justified.  Bodily  cleanliness  is  ceremonial  and  religious  rather 
than  physical. 

“The  virtue  of  cleanliness  received  practical  acknowledgement  among 
even  the  lowest  classes.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p.  65. 

““Nuptial  huts”,  Shinto,  p.  go  and  “parturition  huts”,  ibid.  p.  113. 
There  were  also  "mourning  huts”,  especially  constructed,  in  which  dead 
bodies  were  kept  for  ten  days. 

40  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p.  84. 

47  Satow,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  IX,  Pt.  11,  pp.  191,  192. 


12 


have  come  down  to  us,  was  Japanese  in  every  way.  “The 
Japanese  house  is  as  thoroughly  a product  of  Japan  as  is  that 
of  the  Chinese,  the  Korean,  the  Malay  a product  of  those  re- 
spective peoples,  and  differs  from  all  quite  as  much  as  they 
differ  from  one  another.  A few  features  have  been  introduced 
from  abroad,  but  these  have  been  trifling.”4S 

Order  was  in  direct  relation  to  the  strength  of  the  ruler. 
Property  rights  were  ill-defined.  Morals  were  low  and  the 
record  made  at  the  time  of  “a  general  purification  of  the  land" 
reveals  a shocking  state  of  affairs.49  The  most  cruel  punish- 
ments were  dealt  out  to  enemies  and  wrong  doers.50  A hu- 
mane emperor  made  an  attempt  to  put  an  end  to  the  practice  of 
burying  alive  servants  with  their  dead  masters51  by  ordering 
that  clay  images52  be  substituted,  but  the  practice  was  not  for 
a long  time  done  away  with,  for  as  late  as  the  year  A.  D.  646 
(which  was  in  the  historical  period)  the  reigning  emperor 
found  it  necessary  to  issue  regulations  concerning  useless 
slaughter  of  this  very  kind.53 

The  first  century  or  two  of  real  history  seems  to  have  been 
a period  of  gradual  retrogression  rather  than  of  advance. 
“The  fifth  century  may  justly  be  called  the  blackest  era  in  the 
history  of  Japanese  imperialism  and  of  course  the  moral  con- 
dition of  the  inferior  classes  was  not  better  than  that  of  the 
Court.”54  The  nation  offered  a striking  example  of  well- 
developed  civilization  side  by  side  with  most  rudimentary  mor- 
ality.55 

48  Morse,  Japanese  Homes  and  Their  Surroundings,  p.  334. 

49  About  A.  D.  200.  V.  Kojiki,  Sec.  XCVII. 

00  Chamberlain’s  Introduction  to  the  Kojiki,  p.  40. 

61  Satow,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  328-332. 

52  Such  clay  images  are  being  found  to-day  here  and  there  on  the 
opening  of  ancient  burial  mounds. 

53  “Let  there  be  complete  cessation  of  all  such  ancient  practices  as 
strangling  one's  self  to  follow  the  dead,  or  of  strangling  others  to  make 
them  follow  the  dead,  or  of  killing  the  dead  man’s  horse.”  Nihongi, 
bk.  25. 

54  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  pp.  83,  86. 

55  Ibid.  p.  88. 


13 


The  Great  Reform — Seventh  Century. 

During  the  prehistoric  ages  down  until  the  fifth  century, 
when  real  history  began,  the  process  of  the  amalgamation  of  the 
originally  heterogeneous  elements  had  been  going  on  and  the 
product  was  a distinct  type,  worthy  of  being  called  Japanese, 
which  showed  marked  improvement,  both  physically  and  men- 
tally, over  the  original  types. 

Society,  which  had  been  military  from  the  beginning,  was 
governed  by  the  emperor,  the  military  head  of  the  nation,  and 
his  advisers,  the  generals  or  chiefs  under  him.58  The  divine 
descent  of  the  emperor  and  his  own  divinity  were  the  cardinal 
articles  of  religion  and  principles  of  government.  He  was  at 
once  king  and  high  priest.57  Under  him  there  was  not  the 
usual  division  into  the  two  classes  of  priests  and  warriors,  but 
gradually  the  nobles  were  differentiated  as  civil  and  military 
officials,  the  court  nobility  and  the  nobility  of  the  sword.  The 
peasants  and  other  non-military  members  of  society  were  des- 
pised, and  looked  up  in  subservience  to  their  rulers.  It  is 
likely  that  it  was  the  progenitors  of  the  Japanese  proper  who 
formed  the  ruling  and  industrial  classes,  while  the  agricultur- 
alists were  the  subjugated  aborigines  and  the  social  outcasts  of 
the  Japanese.58  Even  the  artisans,  whose  value  to  society  was 

M The  ancient  Mikado  had  gone  to  war  in  person.  “He  managed  civil 
and  military  affairs  personally.”  Kawakami,  Political  Ideas,  p.  35. 
Brinkley  (Vol.  I,  p.  173)  calls  the  period  prior  to  A.  D.  645  the  patri- 
archal age  “when  the  sovereign  was  only  the  head  of  a group  of  tribal 
chiefs,  each  possessing  a hereditary  share  of  the  governing  power”. 

61  He  was  “at  the  same  time  high  priest  and  king.  There  was  no 
well-marked  distinction  between  secular  and  religious  ceremonies.  The 
functionaries  who  performed  the  latter  had  no  specially  sacerdotal 
character  and  no  distinctive  costume.”  Aston,  Shinto , p.  200.  “There 

was  no  priest The  prieshood  in  Shinto  has  never  been  completely 

differentiated.  The  priest  is  essentially  a layman  with  certain  added 
functions  for  religious  occasions.  There  is  no  trace  in  our  sources  of 
the  head  of  the  family  as  priest, — a very  significant  omission.”  G.  W. 
Knox,  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,  p.  27. 

58  It  is  fair  to  assume  that  many  of  the  aborigines  remained  attached 
to  the  soil  which  their  fathers  had  cultivated  and  it  is  also  likely  that 
some  of  the  inferior  individuals  among  the  invaders  had  been  made  to 


14 


recognized,  received  little  public  consideration.  They  gener- 
ally formed  part  of  a noble's  household,  and  occupied  a posi- 
tion not  greatly  better  than  that  of  vassals  in  whom  their  pa- 
trons enjoyed  a right  of  property.  It  was  not  until  shortly  be- 
fore the  period  now  under  consideration  that  they  were  re- 
leased from  this  state  of  bondage  and  granted  the  status  of  or- 
dinary subjects.59 

The  theory  had  been  early  developed  that  the  throne  be- 
longed to  the  one  reigning  family  and  that  everything  was 
ultimately  under  its  ownership.00  The  right  to  hold  office  had 
descended  generation  by  generation  in  the  same  family.  Great 
importance  naturally  attached  to  questions  of  genealogy  and 
rank.  In  the  fifth  century,  intermixture  and  confusion  of 
families  was  becoming  a source  of  trouble,  and  accordingly 
the  reigning  Emperor  gave  command  that  all  who  laid  claim 
to  noble  birth  should  submit  to  the  ordeal  of  dipping  their 
hands  into  pots  of  boiling  water.  Those  whose  hands  were 
injured  were  pronounced  deceivers  while  those  who  stood  the 
trial  unhurt  were  recognized  as  of  noble  lineage.  From  this 
time  dates  a marked  distinction  between  the  upper  and  lower 
classes. 

The  common  people,  the  agricultural  and  industrial  classes, 
were  not  slaves  or  even  serfs,  according  to  any  acknowledged 
rendering  of  those  terms,  but  beneath  them  were  the  “despised 
people”  who  were  practically  slaves.  A man  might  be  reduced 
to  this  condition  for  any  one  of  six  causes ; even  those  of 
good  birth  were  sometimes  thus  degraded.  About  five  per 
cent,  of  the  total  population01  belonged  to  this  class.  Although 
they  were  almost  without  exception  well  treated,  some  of 
them  differing  little  from  ordinary  subjects,  they  were  some- 

do  service.  It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  it  was  not  until  the 
modern  era  that  it  was  possible  for  these  plebians  to  rise  to  patrician 
rank.  Below  them  were  the  ‘‘despi-ed  people”  mentioned  infra. 

5*  Brinkley,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  69,  seq.  passim. 

m Asakawa,  pp.  126,  127. 

C1  Probably  two  millions  by  this  time.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighth 
century  it  was  3,694,331. 


15 


times  sold,  their  value  being152  fifty  or  sixty  dollars  each,  ex- 
pressed in  the  currency  of  our  day. 

The  country  had  early  been  divided  among  noble  families 
which  by  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  had  become 
large  groups  or  communities  occupying  large  tracts  of  land,83 
and  paying  tribute,  often  irregularly,  to  the  emperor.  There 
was  thus  already  in  existence  a rudimentary  form  of  feudalism, 
the  natural  outcome  of  which  was  that  the  power  of  the 
central  government  was  weakened. 

The  heads  of  several  of  these  great  families,64  who  had  be- 

02  “Eight  hundred  sheaves”,  or  about  forty  bushels  of  rice. 

63  “Looking  as  far  back  as  history  throws  its  light,  it  is  seen  that  the 
Crown’s  right  of  eminent  domain  was  an  established  doctrine,  but 
that,  during  the  era  of  patriarchal  government,  large  tracts  of  land 
came  into  the  possession  of  the  great  governing  families,  and  remained 
their  property  until  the  fall  and  virtual  extermination  of  the  last  of 
these  families  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century.”  Brinkley, 
Vol.  I.  pp.  1 1 5 seq. 

“The  subject  of  clans,  tribes,  etc.,  in  Japan  is  a most  tempting  one, 
but  as  full  treatment  of  it  would  carry  us  beyond  the  limits  of  this 
essay,  a conscious  effort  is  made  to  avoid  such  words  in  the  text. 
The  meaning  of  the  words  would  be  different  in  the  several  periods  of 
Japanese  history.  These  terms  have  at  least  five  different  connota- 
tions according  as  they  are  employed  to  describe  groups  in  different 
periods  of  Japanese  social  organization:  (i)  There  were  tribes  or 
races  in  Japan  which  were  fused  together  and  became  the  first  Japan- 
ese, but  of  their  organization  nothing  is  and  probably  nothing  ever  will 
be  known.  Moreover,  as  has  been  stated,  they  antedated  Japanese  so- 
ciety and  so  do  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  our  discussion.  (2)  The 
original  population  was  divided  into  three  classes,  the  divine  branch, 
which  consisted  of  the  descendants  of  the  gods ; the  imperial  branch 
which  included  the  descendants  of  the  imperial  families;  and  the  for- 
eign branch,  comprising  descendants  of  naturalized  foreigners.  Each 
of  these  three  branches  was  divided  again  into  many  sections,  each 
of  which  had  a distinctive  name,  “Uji”,  or  “Kabane”.  Japanese 
scholars  who  have  studied  in  the  West  have  translated  “Uji” 
and  “Kabane”  by  clan,  for  they  assert  that  both  these  terms 
have  the  idea  of  a common  ancestor,  and  therefore  community  of 
blood.  The  aggregation  of  families  did  not  form  a clan,  but  when 
the  clan  disintegrated  families  or  houses  began  to  form  units  of  so- 
ciety. (3)  The  great  families  which  held  the  administrative  power 


come  the  depositories  of  administrative  power  by  monopoli- 
zing the  principal  offices  of  state  as  hereditary  rights,  had 
grown  more  and  more  arrogant  and  now  despised  the  laws  and 
even  defied  the  authority  of  the  sovereign.  In  their  breasts 
was  the  desire  for  greater  power,  and  they  were  deterred  only 
by  the  fact  that  none  felt  strong  enough  to  wrest  the  imperial 
power  and  maintain  himself  against  those  who  would  have  be- 
come his  opponents.  The  stability  of  the  throne  being  threat- 
ened it  was  all  too  evident  that  it  was  urgently  necessary  to 
crush  the  power  of  these  noble  families. 

The  times  were  ripe  for  change  and  indeed  a change  was 
absolutely  necessary.  Culture  and  morality  were  on  different 
planes.  Superstition  had  invaded  every  domain  of  life.  There 
was  no  religion  and  no  morality  worth  the  name.  Great 
families  had  become  so  powerful  that  the  state  was  threatened 
with  disruption. 

The  social  upheaval  which  followed  is  known  as  the  “Taikwa 
Reformation”.  What  brought  about  the  change  was  con- 
tact with  the  civilizations  of  Korea  and  China.65  It  is  hoped 

of  the  government  in  the  few  centuries  of  the  historic  period  just 
preceding  the  “Great  Reform”  are  often  referred  to  as  tribes,  and  the 
“quasi-tribal”  organization  of  society  is  a term  in  constant  use.  The 
same  plan  is  followed,  but  with  less  uniformity,  in  speaking  of  the 
great  families  which  later  became  prominent  and  practically  took  into 
their  hands  the  reins  of  the  government,  and  held  them  until  the 
twelfth  century.  (4)  The  hereditary  corporations,  “Be”,  are  often 
spoken  of  as  clans,  but  there  was  no  tie  of  blood  relationship 
between  the  various  corporations  or  between  the  members  comprising 
the  same  corporation.  They  were  rather  guilds,  except  that  the  same 
duty  or  occupation  descended  from  father  to  son.  (5)  The  groups 
under  the  fuedal  lords,  even  down  until  1868,  are  often  designated 
clans  in  the  absence  of  a better  term.  Ancestor-worship,  practically 
universal  among  the  people  from  prehistoric  times  until  to-day,  fur- 
ther complicates  the  problem.  The  whole  subject  is  worthy  of  the 
careful  study  of  trained  sociologists.  The  Japanese  who  have  greatest 
interest  in  it,  almost  without  exception,  are  those  who  have  studied  in 
the  West,  and  much  of  what  they  have  written  has  been  printed  in 
English  or  other  European  languages. 

65  Mnch  is  made  of  the  relation  of  a people  to  their  physical  environ- 
ment and  certainly  the  climate  and  soil  of  Japan,  the  numerous  vol- 


1 7 


that  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  before  the  influence 
of  the  continent  was  felt  there  was  already  in  Japan  a distinct 
Japanese  civilization,  rudimentary  though  it  may  have  been, 
whose  institutions  had  been  evolved  on  Japanese  soil  with- 
out the  aid  of  and  apart  from  the  interference  of  other  nations. 

Korea  and  China  were  known  to  the  Japanese  not  only 
through  the  immigrants  who  came  from  those  countries, 
usually  never  to  return  to  their  native  homes,  but  the  annals  of 
all  three  lands  tell  of  intercourse  between  them.  The  Japanese 
claim  of  having  subjugated  Korea  early  in  the  Christian  era 
must  not  be  taken  seriously.68  Presents  were  sometimes  ex- 
changed between  the  rulers  but  the  Japanese  are  not  justi- 
fied in  construing  this  as  the  sending  of  tribute  to  their  sover- 
eign by  a subject  people.  The  Chinese  history,  which  in  this 
matter  can  certainly  be  relied  upon,  makes  definite  record  of 
three  visits  of  Japanese  envoys  to  the  Chinese  court  during 
the  opening  of  the  Christian  era.  China  had  not  only  reached 
a position  of  national  greatness  but  had  also  attained  a high 
degree  of  civilization  and  culture.  The  splendor  of  that  civili- 
zation was  dazzling  to  the  eyes  of  the  less-advanced  Japanese. 
A Korean  named  Wani,  who  came  to  Japan  early  in  the  fifth 
century  and  was  afterward  naturalized,  was  appointed  tutor 
in  Chinese  to  a Japanese  crown  prince.  “He  was  the  first  of 
a succession  of  teachers  from  that  country  whose  instructions 
paved  the  way  for  a revolution  in  Japanese  institutions  and 
manners.”67  In  the  same  century  the  policy  of  specially  im- 

canoes  and  frequent  earthquakes,  have  exerted  a great  influence  in  the 
development  of  the  people  and  their  national  character.  Of  even 
greater  importance  was  their  practical  isolation,  due  to  the  fact  that 
theirs  was  an  island  home. 

06  This  armed  invasion  of  Korea  under  an  empress  constitutes  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  most  disputed 
incidents  of  Japan’s  history.  “The  Japanese  never  set  foot  at  all  in 
that  part  of  Korea  subject  to  immediate  Chinese  influence,  except  for  a 
few  months  during  Hideyoshi’s  invasion,  towards  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  The  Japanese  never  ruled  directly  any  part  of  Korea.” 
E.  H.  Parker,  Race  Struggles  in  Korea,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  XVIII,  p.  158. 

67  Aston,  Nihongi,  Vol.  I,  p.  xii. 

18 


porting  skilled  aid  direct  from  China  was  inaugurated,  and 
large  bodies  of  female  weavers  and  embroiderers  were  invited 
to  settle  in  Japan.  Marked  progress  in  many  of  the  essentials 
of  civilization  was  made  after  this  great  wave  of  Chinese 
and  Korean  immigration.68 

Of  greater  importance  than  the  appearance  of  the  externals 
of  material  civilization  was  the  advent  of  Buddhism  in  the 
year  552.  Confucianism  had  made  its  appearance  earlier,  but 
had  shown  itself  utterly  powerless  to  raise  the  moral  standards 
or  change  the  lives  of  the  people.69  The  progress  of  Buddhism 
was  most  rapid.  Members  of  the  court  became  believers,  and 
within  a century  the  whole  land  was  converted  to  the  alien 
faith. 

The  native  religion,  or  cult,  almost  entirely  disappeared. 
Original  Shinto  was  primarily  the  worship  of  nature.  Sub- 
sequently, to  give  stability  to  the  imperial  power,  worship  of 
the  imperial  family  was  added,  and  in  time  reverence  for  the 
emperor,  descended  from  the  gods  and  himself  a god,  became 
its  fundamental  idea.70  The  political  changes  which  took 
place  in  this  period,  strengthening  the  hold  of  the  imperial 
line  upon  the  throne,  were  of  the  utmost  importance  to  Shinto. 
It  escaped  extinction,71  but  henceforth  it  was  a religion  whose 

6S  “The  Japanese,  always  ready  to  learn  from  others,  have,  from  a 
period  which  may  be  called  prehistoric,  at  various  times  invited  Korean 
artists  to  settle  in  this  country,  and  several  schools  of  pottery  are  said 
to  have  been  founded  by  these  immigrants.”  E.  Satow,  The  Korean 
Potters  in  Satsuma , T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  VI,  Pt.  11,  p.  193. 

69  It  has  in  fact  been  blamed  for  the  decline  of  morality  in  the  fifth 
century  already  referred  to.  As  Shinto  was  not  a religion  in  the  strict 
sense,  this  was  an  opportunity  to  demonstrate  its  power  in  a land  where 
there  was  no  religion,  but  this  time  it  proved  a complete  failure. 

10  About  this  central  idea  Shinto  developed  a system  of  ancestor- 
worship  which  has  continued  to  this  day.  The  emperor  as  the  de- 
cendant  of  the  imperial  ancestors,  embodying  in  himself  all  their  virtues 
and  all  their  rights  and  duties,  is  the  central  figure  of  the  whole  system 
of  ancestor-worship.  “The  worship  of  the  Imperial  Ancestors  is  the 
national  worship.”  Nobushige  Hozumi,  Ancestor-Worship  and  Japan- 
ese Law,  p.  21. 

71  “This  political  motive,  the  theoretical  establishment  of  the  Imperial 


19 


core  was  essentially  political.72 

Occasional  pestilence  and  famine  had  swept  away  large 
numbers  of  people,  but  enjoying  peace  and  prosperity  the  popu- 
lation had  steadily  increased.  This  increase  of  population, 
with  greater  division  of  labor,  and  territorial  expansion  made 
necessary  a more  complicated  governing  organization.  In 
645  the  power  of  the  last  of  the  great  families  which  had 
threatened  the  throne  was  annihilated.  Those  who  had  held 
administrative  power  as  hereditary  rights,  and  in  practical 
independence  of  the  sovereign,  were  compelled  to  restore 
it.73  The  sovereign  became  the  real  emperor  and  was  no 
longer  separated  from  the  people  by  nobles  who  usurped  his 
authority.  The  emperors  before  this  time  had  usually  been 
in  sympathetic  touch  with  the  people,  but  now  they  felt  more 
than  ever  that  it  was  necessary  to  have  popular  support.74 
The  constitution  promulgated  in  645  embodied  the  principles 
of  constitutional  monarchy.  The  government  was  reorgan- 
ized and  the  administrative  system  remodelled.  “Eight  De- 
partments of  State  were  created,  and  the  organization  of  the 
government  was  brought  to  a fairly  perfect  state.”75 

The  ideas  as  to  the  organization  of  the  state  had  been  im- 
ported almost  bodily  from  China,  but  Japan  had  developed 

regime,  saved  Shinto  from  extinction.  Otherwise  it  would  have  dis- 
appeared in  Buddhism.”  Knox,  Development  of  Religion , p.  64. 

72  ‘‘Its  noblest  mission  could  not  rise  higher  than  its  enunciation  of  the 
theory  of  the  Imperial  succession.”  Asakawa,  Early  Institutional  Life, 
p.  128. 

73  “People  were  declared  the  direct  subjects  of  the  monarch,  and  all 
lands  were  restored  to  the  central  government.”  Kawakami,  Political 
Ideas,  p.  39. 

71  “A  Rescript  of  the  Emperor  Kotoku  (A.  D.  645-654)  says : — ‘He 
that  is  the  Sovereign  of  a country  and  that  rules  its  people,  would 
do  well  not  to  govern  by  himself  alone:  he  should  avail  himself  of 
the  assistance  of  his  functionaries’.”  Prince  Hirobumi  Ito,  Commen- 
taries on  the  Constitution  of  the  Empire  of  Japan,  p.  85. 

75  Op.  cit.,  pp.  21-22.  This  strongly  centralized  government,  with  the 
accompanying  bureaucracy,  which  was  developed  and  given  shape  be- 
tween 645  and  701,  is  with  some  modifications  the  official  organization  of 
the  Japanese  Empire  to-day.  V.op.  cit.,  p.  22. 


20 


her  own  doctrine  regarding  the  imperial  authority.76  This 
political  revolution  has  been  broadly  described  as  the  result 
of  the  introduction  of  Chinese  civilization  through  the  medium 
of  Buddhist  priests.  What  the  Koreans  brought  was  Chinese, 
Korea  owing  to  her  geographical  position  being  only  the 
intermediary.  While  the  Japanese  accepted  Buddhism  and 
made  it  the  national  religion,77  they  adapted  it  so  that  it  be- 
came a religion  almost  essentially  different  from  that  brought 
by  the  priests  from  the  mainland.  The  political  changes,  too, 
were  due  to  the  contact  with  the  continent ; but  the  ideas  were 
assimilated  and  applied  to  Japan.  Thus  while  Japan  appro- 
priated much  in  religion  and  politics,  everything  was  made 
to  conform  to  Japanese  ideals. 

Development  and  Assimilation. 

The  Taikwa  Reformation  was  accomplished  in  the  year  645, 
but  the  way  had  been  prepared  for  it  forty  years  before.  The 
principles  of  the  Reform  reached  their  consummation  in  701, 
when  the  Taiho  Code  was  promulgated.78 

Officials  were  divided  into  ranks,  each  of  which  had  its 
distinctive  costume.  Strict  rules  of  etiquette  were  observed 
at  court.  Regulations  were  made  for  the  taking  of  the  census 
at  certain  intervals,  measures  relating  to  taxation  were  adopted, 
and  rules  for  the  organization  of  the  army  were  instituted. 
All  land  was  now  in  possession  of  the  state  and  registered 
as  public  property,  but  much  of  it  was  distributed  among  the 
people  for  limited  periods  of  years.79  For  purposes  of  con- 

16  “The  principles  of  the  Reform  were  partly  Chinese  and  partly  Jap- 
anese; Chinese  as  to  the  organization  of  the  State,  and  Japanese  as  far 
as  the  theory  of  sovereignty  was  concerned.”  Asakawa,  Early  Institu- 
tional Life,  pp.  323,  327. 

77  Not  however  as  a union  of  church,  or  religion,  and  state.  In 
so  far  as  such  union  may  be  said  ever  to  have  obtained  in  Japan  this 
honor  has  always  been  reserved  for  Shinto. 

78  This  was  a comprehensive  Code,  which  first  reduced  to  written 
terms  the  entire  body  of  law  including  specifically  a criminal  code  with 
provisions  for  appeal. 

79  Private  sales  of  land  were  interdicted.  Lands  loaned  by  the  State 


21 


venience  the  empire  was  divided  into  fifty-eight  provinces 
with  over  five  hundred  sub-divisions,  in  each  of  which  there 
was  a certain  amount  of  local  self-government. 

Although,  because  of  political  differences,  amicable  rela- 
tions with  Korea  had  ceased  and  the  number  of  Korean  im- 
migrants had  become  less,  there  was  no  decrease  in  the 
number  of  Chinese.  The  latter  were  welcomed  and  often 
given  official  positions.  Nor  can  this  political  preferment 
be  wondered  at,  for  there  were  not  qualified  Japanese  to  as- 
sume charge  of  all  the  bureaux  of  the  reorganized  govern- 
ment. Nearly  all  who  came  to  remain  were  naturalized  and 
mingled  their  blood  with  that  of  the  composite  Japanese 
race. 

The  two  cultures,  previously  different  from  each  other 
both  in  degree  and  in  kind,  were  fused  into  one  which  was 
not  a copy  of  the  Chinese  nor  was  it  any  longer  purely  Japan- 
ese. Japan  had  turned  to  China  at  a time  when  she  felt  the 
need  of  political  ideas  and  a higher  civilization.  The  Middle 
Kingdom  proved  to  the  Island  Empire  all  that  Greece  and 
Rome  were  to  the  nations  of  Europe.  Japan  had  drunk 
deep  at  the  fountain  of  Chinese  civilization  and  the  Budd- 
hist religion  and  there  was  a distinct  change  in  the  national 
character.  Now  she  felt  that  it  was  necessary  for  her  to  ex- 
amine her  new-found  possessions,  and,  while  adopting  and 
assimilating  them,  to  make  them  truly  her  own.80  Relations 
with  Korea  had  already  ceased  before  the  close  of  the  last 

were  to  be  returned  every  six  years  for  the  purpose  of  redistribution. 
History  Empire  of  Japan,  pp.  72-73,  passim. 

80  “There  is  no  department  of  Japanese  national  life  and  thought 
whether  material  civilization,  religion,  morals,  political  organization, 
language,  or  literature,  which  does  not  bear  traces  of  Chinese  influence 
. . . We  must  not,  however,  forget  the  native  genius  of  the  Japanese 
nation,  which,  in  spite  of  numerous  external  obligations,  has  yet  retained 
its  originality.  The  Japanese  are  never  contented  with  simple  borrow- 
ing. In  art,  political  institutions,  and  even  religion,  they  are  in  the  habit 
of  modifying  extensively  everything  which  they  adopt  from  others,  and 
impressing  on  it  the  stamp  of  the  national  mind.”  Aston,  Japanese 
Literature,  pp.  3,  4. 


22 


period.  In  the  eighth  century  the  Chinese  were  in  the  ascen- 
dancy, but  before  the  ninth  century  ended  there  was  a cessa- 
tion of  intimate  relationship  with  the  Chinese  Empire.  Dur- 
ing the  succeeding  four  hundred  years  communication  be- 
tween Japan,  China  and  Korea  was  rare  and  couched  in  for- 
mal terms.81  Japan  was  secluded  from  the  outside  world. 
These  were  centuries  of  peace  and  prosperity.  In  this  per- 
iod of  seclusion  Japan  reached  what  from  some  points  of  view 
has  been  called  her  “golden  age”. 

In  a land  where  the  sovereigns  were  held  in  such  high  re- 
spect that  they  were  worshipped,  their  acceptance  of  a for- 
eign religion  at  a time  when  they  were  in  closest  touch  with 
and  had  greatest  hold  upon  the  masses  must  have  had  a great 
moial  effect  upon  the  common  people.  In  Japan  innovations 
have  usually  moved  from  above  downwards,  and  the  case  of 
the  Buddhist  religion  was  not  only  not  an  exception  but  was 
one  of  the  most  conspicuous  examples  of  this  tendency. 
Japanese  historians  say  that  nothing  could  exceed  the  devo- 
tion of  the  imperial  house  to  the  Buddhist  religion.  At  the 
capital  a magnificent  temple  was  built,  and  a little  later  an 
enormous  bronze  image  of  Buddha82  was  cast  and  overlaid 
with  gold.  After  those  at  court  had  become  adherents  of  the 
new  faith,  the  sovereign  commanded  every  house  to  have  a 
Buddhist  altar,  and  images  to  be  made  for  governors  of 
provinces,  temples  to  be  built  for  priests  and  nuns,  and  for- 
bade the  slaying  of  animals  and  the  eating  of  flesh.83  Mem- 
bers of  all  classes  of  society  acquiesced.  Ignorant  folks,  see- 
ing the  gorgeous  paraphernalia  of  the  temples  and  the  solem- 
nity of  the  rites  performed  there,  were  awed  into  faith.  But 
here  and  there  were  those  who  were  loath  to  renounce  alle- 
giance to  the  native  gods.  The  national  pride  of  some  was 

81  Asakawa,  Early  Institutional  Life,  p.  333. 

82  This  Daibutsu,  or  Gigantic  Image  of  Buddha,  at  Nara  was  cast  in  A. 
D.  749.  It  is  in  sitting  posture,  with  the  legs  crossed,  and  is  the 
largest  in  Japan,  the  height  of  the  image  being  fifty-three  feet. 

83  Newton,  Japan:  Country,  Court,  and  People,  pp.  64  seq. 


23 


hurt.  To  them  the  national  acceptance  of  the  Indian  religion 
which  had  come  by  the  way  of  China  meant  the  supplanting  of 
the  native  faith  by  a foreign  creed.  Their  hesitancy  caused  a 
cunning  priest  to  give  careful  thought  to  the  matter,  and  he 
made  the  fortunate  discovery  that  the  Sun  Goddess,  the  an- 
cestor of  the  first  emperor,  was  herself  an  incarnation  of 
Buddha,  and  all  the  gods  in  the  Shinto  pantheon  manifesta- 
tions of  Buddha.84  This  pleased  the  people,  and  now  nothing 
stood  in  the  way  of  Buddhism’s  progress.83 

As  the  Buddhist  doctrines  could  not  be  comprehended  with- 
out a mastery  of  Chinese,  this  was  studied  diligently  and  it 
became  the  language  of  scholarship.  Buddhist  priests,  who 
were  the  leaders  in  spreading  learning  and  the  arts,  were  of 
course  the  teachers.  But  the  Chinese  classics  consisted  of  the 
teachings  of  Confucius,88  and  thus  these  became  known  to 

64  “Buddhism  has  ever  shown  an  adaptability  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  it  has  found  itself,  and  therefore  in  the  study  of  any  particular 
phase  of  Buddhism  we  shall  be  studying  the  characteristic  idiosyncracies 
of  the  nation  which  professes  it.”  J.  Summers,  Buddhism,  and 
Traditions  concerning  its  Introduction  into  Japan,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  XIV, 
P-  77- 

“In  the  ninth  century  the  Shinto  gods  were  declared  to  be  incarnations 
of  Buddha,  and  a composite  religion,  Ryobu  Shinto,  was  formed.  But 
while  the  name  was  Shinto  its  substance  was  Buddhism.”  Knox,  Re- 
ligion in  Japan,  p.  67,  n.  2. 

“The  power  of  Buddhism  was  never  so  strong  again  in  Japan  as  in 
this  period.  “Never  did  any  alien  faith  find  warmer  welcome  in  a for- 
eign country.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p.  97. 

86  Confucianism  had  not  at  first  made  a good  impression.  “When 
Confucianism  was  first  introduced  into  Japan,  the  simple-minded  na- 
tives, deceived  by  its  plausible  appearance,  accepted  it  with  eagerness, 
and  allowed  it  to  spread  its  influence  everywhere.  The  consequence 
was  civil  war.”  The  native  scholar,  Mabuchi,  quoted  by  Satow,  T.  A.  S. 
J.,  Vol.  Ill,  App.  ir,  p.  13.  But,  as  Satow  hints,  the  strictures  of 
Mabuchi  are  probably  too  severe. 

“Japan  gradually  declined  under  the  moral  drought  that  at  first  fol- 
lowed the  introduction  of  Confucianism,  and  sank  rapidly  for  centuries. 
It  was  not  until  her  true  national  impulses,  making  their  way  again 
through  a powerful  organism,  which  had  been  severely  shaken,  but  not 
destroyed,  led  her  to  change  her  course  and  engraft  upon  her  own  stock 


24 


scholars.  Buddhism  had  absorbed  into  itself  much  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  great  sage  of  China,  but  the  immediate  study 
of  his  principles  later  gave  to  Japan  the  basis  of  her  morals 
and  ethical  system.87 

Chinese  civilization  and  culture  swept  everything  before 
them.  The  conversion  of  the  land  to  Buddhism  and  the 
changes  in  the  administrative  departments  of  the  government 
were  only  the  first,  although  the  most  important,  of  the 
changes  brought  about.  The  very  appearance  of  the  country 
was  altered,  for  in  addition  to  the  native  Shinto  shrines  Budd- 
hist temples  now  sprang  up  everywhere.  Fine  residences  and 
spacious  mansions  were  built  according  to  the  models  of 
Chinese  architecture,  and  landscape  gardeners  added  beauty 
to  the  surroundings.88  Skilful  weavers  turned  out  silk  cloth 
and  brocade  of  excellent  quality,  and  seamstresses  and  em- 
broiderers produced  silk  garments  of  wondrous  beauty.  The 
very  best  robes  were  still  imported  from  China.  In  all  there 
were  two  hundred  and  sixteen  varieties  of  dress.  The  Chi- 
nese fashion  of  adorning  the  person  with  jewels,  however, 
failed  to  take  deep  hold  and  did  not  long  survive.89 

Koreans  had  been  the  first  teachers  of  Japanese  sculptors 
and  painters,  but  they  had  cultivated  only  the  taste  of  their 
pupils  for  appreciation  of  the  higher  art  of  China.90  The 

the  principles  of  foreign  origin, — from  which  combination  sprang  the 
civilization  peculiar  to  herself,- — that  she  at  last  found  the  prosperity 
and  happiness  she  had  in  vain  looked  for  in  the  mere  copy  of  the 
Chinese  government  and  ethics.”  “A  native  moralist”,  quoted  by  Le 
Gendre,  Progressive  Japan,  pp.  2,  3. 

87  It  was  really  the  good  points  in  the  Confucian  system,  taught  by 
the  Buddhist  priests,  which  first  gave  a high  moral  tone  to  the  Japan- 
ese national  life.  Confucianism  grew  in  favor  and  in  the  next  period 
was  a more  potent  factor  in  moulding  the  national  character  than  was 
Buddhism. 

88  An  edict  required  that  all  roofs  must  be  tiled.  Few  things  in  Japan 
to-day  are  the  cause  of  as  much  aesthetic  enjoyment  as  the  work  of  the 
landscape  gardener’s  art. 

89  Chinese  customs  were  adopted  almost  in  toto,  but  many  were  re- 
jected after  trial. 

90  Chinese  painters  devoted  themselves  to  religious  subjects.  “Japanese 


25 


artists  who  came  over  from  the  peninsula  to  teach  the  art  of 
pottery  also  found  apt  pupils.  The  art  of  lacquer  manufac- 
ture was  introduced  from  China,  probably  in  the  train  of 
Buddhism.  The  teaching  of  foreign  music  was  encouraged. 
Medicine  too  was  introduced  by  Chinese  physicians.  Sword 
makers  were  held  in  high  honor  and  they  forged  excellent 
blades  of  steel.  The  Japanese  had  learned  how  to  manufac- 
ture paper  and  ink.  Printing  was  done  with  wooden  blocks, 
and  several  specimens  of  printing  done  in  the  year  770  are 
still  extant.91  The  several  classes  of  artisans  were  distributed 
throughout  the  land  so  as  to  extend  the  range  of  the  several 
arts  and  industries. 

The  art  of  writing,  introduced  from  China  through  Korea, 
was  slavishly  copied.  A native  priest92  invented  a syllabary 
for  the  fifty  sounds,  but  all  else  was  Chinese.  Literature 
flourished  and  a person  who  could  not  compose  poems  was  be- 
neath notice.  This  was  the  golden  age  of  belles-lettres.93 

pictorial  art  is  permeated  with  Chinese  affinities.  The  one  is  indeed  the 
child  of  the  other,  and  traces  of  this  close  relationship  are  nearly  always 

present  in  greater  or  less  degree It  may,  indeed,  be  fairly  claimed 

for  the  Japanese  that  in  some  branches  of  painting  their  modifications  de- 
serve to  be  regarded  as  efforts  of  original  genius,  and  that,  speaking 
generally,  their  work  is  superior  to  that  of  the  Chinese  in  tenderness, 
and,  above  all,  in  humor.  But,  for  the  rest,  they  sit  at  China’s  feet. 
Korea  should  also  be  included  among  their  masters,  for  there  is  evidence 
that  Korean  influence  preceded  Chinese.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  VII,  p.  16. 

01  Satow,  History  of  Printing  in  Japan,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol  X,  p.  49. 
Satow  possesses  a copy  of  a treatise  printed  in  1248.  Ibid.  p.  52. 

02  Kobo  Daishi,  the  most  famous  priest  in  Japanese  history. 

““This  was  the  brilliant  age  of  Japanese  classical  literature,  which 
lived  and  moved  and  had  its  being  in  the  atmosphere  of  an  effeminate 
court.”  Chamberlain,  Things  Japanese,  p.  213.  ' 

Those  who  believe  that  in  early  society  the  poetical  temperament 
finds  its  highest  perfection  will  find  little  support  for  their  views  in  the 
case  of  Japan.  The  earliest  literature,  the  “Records”  and  “Chronicles”, 
has  preserved  for  us  about  two  hundred  songs  or  poems,  but  their  merit 
as  literature  is  small.  Japanese  poetry  was  a later  development  and  was 
less  influenced  by  China  than  prose  has  been.  Cf.  Aston,  Japanese  Liter- 
ature, pp.  7-9,  passim. 


26 


Brinkley  says94  that  in  this  period  Japan  passed  “from  a com- 
paratively rude  condition  to  a state  of  civilization  as  high  as 
that  attained  by  any  country  in  the  world,  from  the  fall  of 
the  Roman  Empire  to  the  rise  of  modern  Occidental  nations’’. 
But,  as  he  would  probably  admit,  high  as  the  civilization  was, 
it  could  not  be  said  to  secure  in  a high  degree  the  material  wel- 
fare of  the  masses.  If  the  contentment  of  the  people  be  the 
standard,  it  may  rightly  be  said  that  Japan  had  reached  a high 
plane  of  civilization,  for  the  people,  joyous  and  light-hearted, 
and  willing  to  work,  were  contented  and  easy  to  rule. 

While  luxury  had  crept  into  the  life  of  the  court  and  of 
those  who  formed  the  upper  classes  of  society,  the  mass  of 
the  people  were  overburdened  with  onerous  taxation  and  their 
lot  was  hard  indeed.  One  of  the  taxes  exacted  from  every 
male  over  twenty-one  years  of  age  was  the  performance  of 
ten  days  public  work  each  year,  but,  as  such  service  could  be 
commuted  for  one  piece  of  cloth,  this  corvee  fell  ultimately 
only  on  the  lower  classes.  The  implements  used  in  agriculture 
were  most  primitive.  All  labor  was  done  by  hand  and  there 
was  almost  no  live-stock  on  the  farms.93 

It  is  little  more  than  a guess  to  say  that  trade  by  barter  was 
probably  carried  on  here  and  there,  for  there  is  no  one  point 
on  which  the  records,  by  this  time  full  and  complete  on  other 
subjects,  are  as  silent  as  this.  Just  at  the  close  of  the  fifth 
century  some  foreign  coins  had  been  brought  in  by  immi- 
grants, but  they  did  not  get  into  general  circulation.  Gold 
and  silver  were  not  valuable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Japanese  and 
they  made  no  use  of  them  before  this.96  Even  copper  coins 

94  Vol.  I,  p.  98. 

95  As  to  agricultural  methods,  England  was  not  in  1700-1760  far  in 
advance  of  the  Japan  of  eight  centuries  earlier.  Cf.  A.  Toynbee,  The 
Industrial  Revolution,  pp.  43-44. 

98  Indeed  they  never  used  the  precious  metals  to  any  extent  as  coins, 
but  rather  to  make  idols,  bells  and  works  of  art.  “Although  gold  and 
silver  were  known  in  China  from  the  earliest  times,  the  first  Japanese 
gold  was  found  and  melted  in  A.  D.  749,  and  the  first  Japanese  silver 
in  the  year  674.  It  is  a remarkable  fact  that  the  discovery  of  these 


27 


like  the  cash  in  use  in  China  were  not  cast  in  Japan  until  the 
eighth  century,  and  after  they  were  struck. the  people  did  not 
know  how  to  use  them  as  media  of  exchange,  and  much  effort 
was  necessary  to  get  them  to  use  the  coins.97  Surely  we  are 
justified  in  inferring  that  exchange  by  any  name  did  not  play 
any  considerable  or  important  part  in  the  national  life.  Each 
family  aimed  to  be  economically  independent.  The  nobles 
and  great  families  had  laboring  for  them  groups  of  artisans 
who  formed  classes  resembling  guilds.  But  what  they  pro- 
duced was  not  for  sale,  or  even  primarily  for  exchange. 
Trade  with  other  nations  was  hardly  dreamed  of.98  Occa- 
sional presents  from  Korea  and  China  served  to  keep  the  Jap- 
anese informed  as  to  the  progress  of  industrial  arts  in  those 
lands,  and  each  new  article  was  eagerly  copied,  but  usually  so 
modified  that  it  became  something  new  and  distinctively  Jap- 
anese. 

In  theory  the  centralized  bureaucracy  was  an  ideal  govern- 
ment for  Japan,  but  in  reality  the  Japanese  were  not  prepared 
for  it.  The  governors  of  the  provinces  were  sent  out  from 
the  central  government  and  were  amenable  to  it.  The  heads 
of  Departments  were  responsible  to  the  throne.  Every  citi- 

metals,  which  were  known  to  the  Egyptians,  the  Chinese  and  old 
Greeks,  and  of  which  Moses  and  Homer  already  speak  very  distinctly, 
was  not  made  in  Japan  at  an  earlier  period.”  J.  A.  Geerts,  Useful 
Minerals  and  Metallurgy  of  the  Japanese , T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  3. 

97  “In  order  that  the  people  might  be  more  readily  inclined  to  re- 
ceive coined  money,  an  edict  was  issued,  granting  titles  to  those  who 
stored  more  than  a certain  amount.  The  emperor  seemed  to  think 
that  if  the  people  once  had  it  in  their  possession  there  would  be  no 
further  question  of  its  circulation.”  Y.  Kinoshita,  Past  and  Present  of 
Japanese  Commerce,  p.  39. 

9S  “Foreign  commerce  was  considered  a government  monopoly,  if  not 
in  fact  a government  function  ....  Individuals  were  not  permitted  to 
trade  directly  with  foreign  merchants,  and  foreign  commerce  assumed 
the  character  of  official  business.  Inasmuch  as  there  were  no  free  tran- 
sactions between  foreigners  and  the  people,  all  imports  were  brought 
in  by  the  foreigners.  The  imports  were  mainly  silk  textiles,  brocades, 
embroidered  goods,  and  coin.  In  regard  to  exports,  Japanese  history 
is  silent.”  Op.  cit.,  p.  36. 


28 


zen  was  the  direct  subject  of  the  sovereign ’who  at  the  time 
might  rightly  have  been  called  the  “father  of  the  people”. 

But  lives  of  luxury  were  not  calculated  to  produce  strong 
rulers.  One  of  the  ministers,  faithful  in  office,  was  favored 
by  the  reigning  emperor;  and  the  Fujiwara  family,  of  which 
this  minister  was  the  head,  soon  became  stronger  than  any  of 
the  families  had  been  before  the  Great  Reform.  All  the  civil 
offices  fell  into  its  hands,  and  all  the  wives  and  favorites  of 
the  emperors  were  taken  from  among  its  members.  Several 
emperors  while  mere  children  were  compelled  to  abdicate  in 
favor  of  successors  who  were  themselves  mere  children,  and 
after  abdicating  to  become  Buddhist  monks  and  retire  to  mon- 
asteries. Thus  for  over  four  centuries  the  Fujiwara  were  the 
real  regents  of  the  country.  Bureaucracy  was  substituted  for 
imperialism  and  the  throne  was  subordinated  to  the  nobility." 
All  over  the  land  office  bearing  again  became  hereditary  and 
responsibility  to  the  central  government  was  almost  forgotten. 
As  the  Fujiwara  gradually  became  addicted  to  luxurious  habits 
their  centralized  control  decayed.100 

There  was  thus  a tremendous  gulf  between  the  throne  and 
the  people,  and  a sharp  distinction  between  the  upper  and  lower 
classes,  the  one  ruling  over  the  other  and  in  turn  supported  by 
it.  After  the  overthrow  of  the  last  of  the  great  houses  who 
had  held  the  reins  of  the  government  before  the  Great  Reform 
and  the  changes  in  government  which  accompanied  their 

99  The  interval  of  forty  years  at  the  close  of  the  last  period,  seventh 
century,  may  be  regarded  as  the  only  time  in  all  the  long  history  of 
Japan  prior  to  modern  times  when  the  emperor  ruled  with  undivided 
authority. 

100  “The  reckless  expenditure  of  the  court  and  of  the  patrician  class 
necessitated  such  heavy  rates  of  taxation  that  the  farmers  had  to  bor- 
row money  and  rice  from  officials  or  Buddhist  priests,  and  since  they 
had  nothing  to  offer  by  way  of  security  except  their  lands,  it  resulted 
that  the  temples  and  the  nobles  began  to  acquire  great  estates  of  which 
the  Government  hesitated  to  resume  possession,  as  prescribed  by  law, 
and  the  agricultural  population  gradually  fell  into  a condition  of  prac- 
tical serfdom.  So  miserable  was  their  plight  that  many  preferred  to 
embrace  the  status  of  slaves,  and  others  turned  to  highway  robbery  and 
piracy.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  I,  p.  161. 


29 


overthrow,  there  had  been  left  no  military  class.  The  bear- 
ing of  arms  had  been  forbidden.  The  soldiers  lived  with  the 
farmers,  from  whom  they  were  not  distinct.  By  a permanent 
arrangement,  instituted  during  the  Reform  and  already  re- 
ferred to,  certain  ones  of  the  “neighboring  fives”  were  to  be 
prepared  to  become  fighters  in  case  of  hostilities  against  the 
aborigines.  More  or  less  struggle  between  these  peasant-sol- 
diers and  the  Ainu  had  developed  their  military  qualities  and 
they  were  now  the  exact  opposite  of  the  cultured  but  effeminate 
families  living  in  the  capital.  Gradually  forming  two  rival 
parties  these  military  men  struggled  for  supremacy  and  then 
the  stronger  wrested  the  administrative  power  from  the  throne 
and  in  1192  set  up  a new  capital.  The  leader  of  this  stronger 
party  did  not  become  emperor,  but,  receiving  the  title  of  Sei-i 
Tai  Shogun — Barbarian-subduing  Generalissimo — -from  the 
sovereign,  established  a system  of  military  feudalism  of  which 
he  was  the  head.  The  civil  governors  of  the  several  provinces 
had  become  autocrats  recognizing  no  authority,  but  the  Shogun 
appointed  from  among  his  own  people  military  governors  who 
were  responsible  to  him.  Military  democracy  had  triumphed 
over  imperial  aristocracy.101 

The  Shogunate  and  Feudalism. 

The  shogun,  being  only  the  head  of  the  army  and  obeying 
the  behests  of  his  master,  the  emperor,  would  have  been  what 
the  Fujiwara  regents  had  been  in  theory.  But,  as  has  been 
shown,  the  Fujiwara  paid  little  or  no  attention  to  the  wishes 
of  the  emperors.  Their  sons  held  all  the  high  offices  of  state 
and  their  daughters  became  the  wives  or  concubines  of  the 
“sons  of  heaven”,  who  were  too  exalted  personages  to  rule  in 
person.  But,  while  the  Fujiwara  were  the  real  regents,  they 
lived  at  the  capital  and  from  there  ruled  the  land,  until  the 
power  little  by  little  fell  from  their  grasp.  When  the  shogun 
established  a new  capital102  the  seat  of  power  was  transferred 

1M  Brinkley,  Vol.  II,  pp.  2-10,  passim. 

102  Kamakura,  which  soon  became  a city  of  a million  or  more  in- 
habitants. 


30 


to  it.  Imperial  power  had  faded  away,  but  the  divine  right 
of  the  emperor  was  not  called  into  question.103 

The  period  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  seventeenth  century 
is  by  far  the  most  interesting  of  Japanese  history.  Among 
the  great  men  were  many  noble  characters  but  their  deeds  have 
little  interest  for  us.  One  great  family  after  another  rose  to 
power,— practically  founded  a dynasty,— became  incompetent, 
and  was  overthrown.  There  were  wars  and  rumors  of  wars 
and  for  centuries  Japan  was  a military  campground.  Each 
new  party  fought  avowedly  to  restore  the  power  to  the  rightful 
sovereign  but  former  usurpers  were  hardly  out  of  the  way  be- 
fore the  emperor  was  forgotten  and  a new  shogun  ruling  in 
his  stead.  At  times  the  imperial  family  was  without  the 
means  of  subsistence  and  there  were  occasions  when  it  was 
difficult  to  secure  sufficient  funds  to  properly  bury  emperors. 

And  yet  while  all  this  was  taking  place  the  country  pros- 
pered. Japan’s  feudal  wars  were  not  fought  for  economic 
reasons,  though  they  doubtless  had  their  economic  side. 
Military  prowess  was  held  in  higher  esteem  than  great  wealth. 
Among  the  common  people  there  was  no  lack  of  the  necessities 
of  life,  although  they  were  compelled  to  support  the  fighting 
men  and  their  families,  except  when  by  the  fortunes  of  war 
they  lost  their  all.  From  such  temporary  disasters  they  were 
soon  able  to  recover.104  There  was  always  a center  of  culture, 
refinement,  and  luxury,  which  usually  had  ample  support. 

In  the  provinces  wealth  and  power  fell  into  the  hands  of 
him  who  was  the  strongest.  The  land  belonged  to  the  im- 

103  “The  over-centralization  of  the  imperial  bureaucracy,  however, 
was  the  cause  of  its  own  decay.  Its  neglect  of  provincial  administra- 
tion led  to  local  disturbances  and  the  creation  of  baronial  estates,  over 
which  the  Kioto  court  exercised  no  active  control.  The  real  authority 
thus  came  into  the  hands  of  the  strongest  baronial  power,  whose  rep- 
resentative, vested  by  the  Mikado  with  the  title  of  Shogun,  or  com- 
mander-in-chief, ruled  the  country  as  regent,  the  Mikado  retaining  but 
a nominal  sovereignty  over  the  empire.”  Kakuzo  Okakura,  The 
Awakening  of  Japan,  pp.  22-23. 

Convulsions  of  nature  added  to  the  horrows  of  civil  war. 
Earthquakes  and  tidal  waves  destroyed  armies  of  peaceful  inhabitants. 


31 


perial  government,  if  such  existed,  but  it  was  regarded  as  the 
legitimate  spoil  of  anyone  who  could  take  it.  Naturally  these 
provincial  magnates  found  it  necessary,  and  indeed  to  their  in- 
terest, to  recognize  the  authority  of  anyone  who  might  be 
the  shogun  in  power  and  to  furnish  whatever  help  he  might 
demand.  The  Buddhist  temples  held  large  estates  and  much 
property,  for  at  times  great  wealth  had  been  showered  upon 
them.  The  priests  were  a power  which  had  to  be  reckoned 
upon,10"’  and  when  they  could  not  be  conciliated  their  fierceness 
as  fighters  made  them  inferior  to  none.  Their  possessions 
were  not  at  stake,  but  their  interference  in  politics  was 
“simply  for  the  worldly  ambition  of  obtaining  power”. 

There  were  these  three  parties : — an  effeminate  court  at  the 
real  capital  of  the  emperor;  a military  class  at  the  head  of 
which  was  the  shogun  who  was  nominally  the  head  of  the  army, 
receiving  his  appointment  from  the  emperor ; and  the  priests, 
wealthy,  ambitious,  defiant.  The  mass  of  the  people,  having 
little  interest  in  politics,  went  about  their  accustomed  duties 
almost  unaffected  by  the  great  questions  of  the  day.  Com- 
mon interests  bound  them  together  into  territorial  groups  more 
or  less  independent  of  each  other.  At  the  time  of  the  Reform 

Storms  and  typhoons  laid  waste  the  land.  Drought,  so  severe  that 
thousands  of  fir-trees  died,  brought  on  famines.  The  mere  mention  of 
several  events  in  the  last  twenty  years  will  help  us  to  imagine  the 
greater  disasters  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  Gifu  earthquake  in 
1891  killed  or  wounded  twenty-two  thousand  persons  and  left  over  a 
million  homeless.  A tidal  wave  in  1895  killed  thirty  thousand.  A 
volcanic  eruption  in  1888  caused  the  death  of  four  hundred  and  sixty- 
one.  The  failure  of  the  rice  crop  bringing  distress  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  in  several  provinces  only  three  years  ago  is  still  fresh  in 
many  minds. 

105  "The  power,  numbers  and  wealth,  of  the  Buddhist  monasteries  had 
vastly  increased.  They  threatened  to  monopolize  the  land  of  the 
empire ; the  head  of  a monastery  was  equal  or  superior  to  one  of  the 
most  powerful  princes.  Not  only  were  the  priests  themselves  living  off 
these  lands,  but  each  of  these  establishments  had  a number  of  re- 
tainers and  soldiers  sufficient  to  change  the  tide  of  success  in  any  en- 
gagement.” W.  Dickson,  Japan,  pp.  84,  85. 


32 


it  had  been  decreed  that  civil  and  military  offices  should  be 
distinct  and  separate,  but  a new  military  class  had  soon  sprung- 
up  which  finally106  took  charge  of  all  civil  offices  by  establish- 
ing a military  administration,  requiring  all  the  military  govern- 
ors to  report  to  the  central  government.  The  office  of  shogun 
was  that  of  an  individual  appointee,  but  like  all  other  offices 
became  hereditary.  The  same  was  true  of  the  military  govern- 
ors, who  became  feudal  lords, — daimyos,  with  great  numbers  of 
retainers  and  large  holdings  of  land.  The  military  governor, 
or  feudal  lord,  was  simply  the  strongest,  most  powerful,  of  the 
military  class,  and  the  shogun  the  one  able  to  gain  supremacy 
over  all  the  rest.107  For  this  reason,  although  the  office  was 
hereditary,  it  did  not  long  remain  in  the  same  family.  At  first 
the  military  party  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  civil  offices, 
but  when  they  assumed  permanent  control  of  the  administration 
of  the  government  of  the  purely  agricultural  population  they 
instituted  a type  of  feudalism  which  lasted  for  seven  hundred 
years.108 

106  That  this  was  inevitable  was  clear  almost  a century  before  it  took 
place.  The  reigning  emperor,  becoming  alarmed,  tried  in  vain  to 
stem  the  tide  by  issuing  an  edict  forbidding  the  fighting  men  of  any 
of  the  provinces  from  constituting  themselves  retainers  of  either  of 
the  two  great  military  families,  which  soon  fell  to  fighting,  the  victor 
assuming  control. 

107  Dickson,  writing  before  the  Restoration,  said,  “When  the  country 
is  torn  by  civil  war,  then  he  who  gets  the  power  may  take  the  title”. 

108  From  one  point  of  view  Japan  has  never  had  any  other  than  a 
feudal  form  of  government.  Ancient  society,  until  645,  was  feudal, 
the  military  chiefs  or  local  rulers  having  unlimited  authority  in  their 
own  districts,  although  acknowledging  some  sort  of  allegiance  to  the 
emperor.  For  less  than  a century,  at  the  time  of  the  Great  Reform, 
when  there  was  a centralized  bureaucracy,  the  emperor  was  vested  with 
real  authority.  Soon  the  local  governors  refused  to  obey  the  man- 
dates of  the  central  government ; then  followed  the  organized  feudalism 
which  lasted  until  1868,  when  the  system  of  centralization  was  revived. 

“As  in  England  the  political  institutions  of  feudalism  may  be  said 
to  date  from  the  Norman  Conquest,  so  we  may  say  that  in  Japan  its 
rise  was  late  in  the  twelfth  century.  As,  however,  in  England,  we  find 
the  social  elements  of  feudalism  far  back  in  the  period  previous  to 


33 


Feudalism  in  Japan  was  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  the  nation  had  been  placed.109  It  was  not 
the  result  of  legislation,  nor  was  its  motive  the  securing  of 
wealth.  The  shogun  could  not  become  the  real  emperor,  nor 
did  he  aspire  to  that  position.  Neither  he  nor  the  feudal  lords 
could  own  the  land  outright ; for  that  belonged  to  the  crown. 

The  majority  of  the  people  were  engaged  in  agriculture,  the 
methods  of  which  had  not  perceptibly  changed  from  its  incep- 
tion. The  work  required  to  produce  a food  supply  was  only 
fairly  hard,  and  the  conditions  under  which  they  labored  were 
exactly  those  to  which  the  people  seemed  adapted.  Although 
the  area  of  Japan  in  this  era  was  much  smaller  than  it  is  to-day, 
when  it  is  not  equal  to  that  of  single  states  of  the  American 
Union,  its  population  grew  to  twenty  millions  by  the  time  the 
civil  wars  ended  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.110  The 

William  the  Conqueror,  so,  too,  the  germs  of  feudalism  in  Japan  had 
been  long  existent  before.”  Inazo  Nitobe,  Bushido,  p.  5. 

11,11  A comparison  of  feudalism  in  Japan  with  that  of  Europe  would 
be  a most  interesting  study.  There  are  more  points  of  resemblance 
than  of  difference.  It  is  a most  striking  and  significant  fact  that  in 
the  most  widely  separated  parts  of  the  world  two  systems  so  analogous 
should  have  existed  in  almost  the  same  centuries,  the  difference  as  to 
time  being  that  Japan’s  lasted  until  only  a few  years  ago.  For  such  a 
study  there  is  much  material  at  hand. 

110  “A  great  increase  of  population  may  be,  and  generally,  is  a great 
and  sure  indication  of  real  prosperity.”  Duke  of  Argyll,  The  Unseen 
Foundations  of  Society,  p.  484. 

The  Dutch  physician  Kaempfer,  after  several  years  in  the  country, 
wrote  in  1692,  “It  is  scarce  credible,  what  numbers  of  people  daily 
travel  on  the  roads  in  this  country,  and  I can  assure  the  reader  from 
my  own  experience,  having  pass’d  it  four  times,  that  Tokaido,  which 
is  one  of  the  chief,  and  indeed  the  most  frequented  of  the  seven  great 
roads  in  Japan,  is  upon  some  days  more  crowded,  than  the  publick 
streets  in  any  of  the  most  populous  town  in  Europe.  This  is  owing 
partly  to  the  Country’s  being  extreamly  populous,  partly  to  frequent 
journies,  which  the  natives  undertake.”  E.  Kaempfer,  The  History  of 
Japan,  Vol.  II,  p.  330. 

In  the  census  of  1721  some  26,061,830  persons  were  registered.  Be- 
tween that  year  and  1846  the  complete  census  was  taken  fifteen  times, 
with  the  result  that  the  population  was  shown  to  be  at  an  absolute  stand- 


34 


effect  of  feudalism  was  to  check  the  growth  of  industry. 
Great  impetus  had  been  given  to  industry  centuries  before  by 
the  Korean  and  Chinese  immigrants,111  but  under  the  feudal 
regime  each  group  manufactured  only  the  articles  used  by  itself. 
It  was  a recognized  custom  that  the  son  should  follow  the  oc- 
cupation of  his  father.  Some  families  thus  became  exceedingly 
skillful  in  making  certain  articles  and  each  district  became  noted 
for  some  one  production.  Such  articles,  however,  seldom  left 
the  districts  where  they  were  made,112  for  the  spirit  of  trade 
seemed  dormant.113 

At  the  time  of  the  Great  Reform  a system  of  general  educa- 
tion had  been  formed,  schools  organized  in  various  provinces, 

still,  for  in  the  latter  year  the  number  of  people  was  26,907,625.  Only 
one  of  the  censuses  made  in  the  intervening  years  gave  less  than  twenty- 
five  million  and  none  as  many  as  twenty-seven  million  inhabitants.  See 
G.  Droppers,  The  Population  of  Japan  in  the  Tokugawa  Period,  T.  A. 
S.  J.,  Vol.  XXII,  p.  262.  And  yet  these  were  years  and  centuries  of  pro- 
found and  unparallelled  peace. 

111  The  case  of  Japan  was  analagous  to  that  of  England  at  a later  date, 
when  the  coming  of  immigrants  from  Flanders  made  possible  and 
was  even  the  cause  of  the  great  and  rapid  progress  of  England. 

112  Instead  of  buying  goods  it  was  the  custom  to  employ  a workman 
to  make  them.  “By  1181  the  fame  of  the  Kyoto  lacquer  ware  was 
such  that  moneyed  persons  and  those  who  were  fond  of  handsome 
furniture  induced  numbers  of  Kyoto  workmen  to  come  and  settle  in 
their  provinces.”  J.  J.  Quin,  The  Lacquer  Industry  of  Japan,  T.  A.  S. 
J.,  Vol.  IX,  p.  4. 

U3  In  studying  industry  and  trade  under  feudalism  in  Japan  we  find 
almost  precisely  the  same  conditions  as  Gibbins  records  concerning 
England, — “The  feudal  system  even  in  a time  of  peac^  did  not 
tend  to  any  great  growth  of  industry.  For  it  encouraged  rather 

than  diminished  the  spirit  of  isolation  and  self-sufficiency Little 

scope  was  afforded  to  individual  enterprise,  from  the  fact  that  the 
consent  of  the  lord  of  a manor  or  town  was  often  necessary  for 

the  most  ordinary  purposes  of  industrial  life It  may  be  admitted 

also,  that  though  the  isolation  of  communities  consequent  upon  the 
prevalent  manorial  system  did  not  encourage  trade  and  traffic  between 
separate  communities,  it  yet  tended  to  diffuse  a knowledge  of  domestic 
manufactures  throughout  the  land  generally,  because  each  place  had 
largely  to  provide  for  itself.”  H.  DeB.  Gibbins,  Industrial  History  of 
England,  p.  32. 


35 


and  a university  established  at  the  capital.  For  a short  period 
education  flourished,  but  declined  again  when  political  power 
was  transferred  to  the  military  class.114  As  the  only  honorable 
profession  was  that  of  a soldier,  learning  was  lightly  es- 
teemed.115 The  golden  age  of  literature  had  passed116  and 
verse  now  composed  was  the  light  and  graceful  accompaniment 
of  convivial  parties.  The  sculptor  now  found  his  inspiration 
in  the  stalwart  soldier.  Painting  flourished.  At  court — or 
more  properly  at  that  of  the  shogun — and  among  tire  wealthy 
classes  politeness  and  refinement  of  manners  and  life  became 
fixed  in  a code  which  has  survived  and  which,  until  quite 
recently,  gave  an  exquisite,  though  evanescent,  charm  to 
Japanese  social  life.117 

114  See  report  prepared  and  translated  by  the  Japanese  Department 
of  Education,  reprinted  in  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  Circulars  of 
Information,  1885,  Vol.  V,  p.  481. 

115  “In  1467  and  during  the  six  following  years,  Kyoto  became 
the  battlefield  of  the  rival  retainers  of  the  Ashikaga  family,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  city  was  twice  burned  to  the  ground.  The  loss  of 
Japanese  literature  by  the  destruction  of  books  is  said  to  have  been 
immense.  Apart  from  the  immediate  effects  of  civil  war,  learning 
must  necessarily  have  decayed  during  a period  when  the  profession 
of  the  soldier  was  the  only  honorable  calling.”  E.  Satow,  Revival  of 
Pure  Shinto,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  Ill,  App.  p.  4 . 

116  Aston  calls  the  early  part  of  the  shogunate  (1186-1332)  “The 
Decline  of  Learning”  and  the  next  three  centuries  (1332-1603)  “The 
Dark  Age”.  Of  the  former  he  says,  “The  rule  of  a class  to  whose 
very  existence  a practical  knowledge  of  war  and  warlike  accomplish- 
ments was  vital,  and  who  necessarily  neglected,  if  they  did  not  despise, 
intellectual  culture,  was  not  conducive  to  the  production  of  impor- 
tant literary  works,”  and  of  the  latter  he  writes,  “These  years  were 
singularly  barren  of  important  literature  in  Japan.”  W.  G.  Aston, 
Japanese  Literature,  pp.  132,  164. 

m “From  1338  to  1565,  the  Ashikagas  ruled  Japan  as  Shoguns. 
Their  court  was  a center  of  elegance,  at  which  painting  flourished, 
and  the  lyric  drama,  and  the  tea  ceremonies,  and  the  highly  intricate 
arts  of  gardening  and  flower  arrangement.  But  they  allowed  them- 
selves to  sink  into  effeminacy  and  sloth,  as  the  Mikados  had  done 
before  them ; and  political  authority,  after  being  for  some  time  ad- 
ministered less  by  them  than  in  their  name,  fell  from  them  altogether 
in  1397.”  B.  H,  Chamberlain,  Things  Japanese,  p.  215. 

36 


The  religion  which  in  earlier  days  had  given  to  Japan  a great 
spiritual  uplift  lost  much  of  its  spirituality  through  the  par- 
ticipation of  its  priests  in  worldly  affairs.  Holding  extensive 
estates,  as  great  if  not  greater  than  those  of  the  nobility,  and 
much  other  property, — for  their  land-holdings  were  only  one 
item  of  their  immense  wealth,— their  time  was  largely  taken  up 
with  managing  material  things.  Piety  was  forgotten  and 
temples  were  places  not  of  worship  but  of  display.  The  monas- 
teries were  in  many  cases  castles  in  which  the  priests  lived  in 
every  kind  of  luxury,  and  from  which  they  tyrannized  over 
the  surrounding  country.  Many  a Buddhist  abbot  rode  armed 
and  equipped  at  the  head  of  his  monks.  As  they  were  no 
longer  mere  religionists,  they  were  on  the  same  level  as  the 
political  parties  of  the  day  and  had  to  take  their  chances  along 
with  them  on  the  field  of  battle.  Engagements  were  often  de- 
termined according  as  they  threw  their  strength  with  one  or  an- 
other party.  They  aroused  the  opposition  of  one  of  the  great- 
est generals  Japan  has  ever  had,118  because  he  feared  their  influ- 
ence, and  fierce  persecution  followed.  An  army  of  sixty  thou- 
sand men  was  insufficient  to  overcome  the  priests,  and  then 
for  ten  years  Nobunaga  fought  to  kill  not  only  priests,  but 
believers  as  well.  The  Zen  sect,  given  to  contemplation,  which 
became  the  sect  of  the  warrior  class,  remained  a depository  of 
spiritual  power ; and  here  and  there  in  the  other  sects  were 
to  be  found  a few  spiritually-minded  persons,  but  the  star  of 
Buddhism  had  passed  its  zenith. 

Shinto  taught  nature-worship,  inspiring  the  people  to  love 
the  country,  and  taught  also  ancestor-worship,  which  im- 
spired  loyalty  to  the  emperor,  even  though  he  did  not  rule  the 

“Japanese  etiquette  is  rapidly  giving  way  before  the  powerful 
thawing  influence  of  western  customs.  Its  old  bloom  is  gone  beyond 
recall,  for  modern  Japan  is  too  busy  over  more  important  matters 
to  busy  itself  with  the  minutiae  of  cha-no-yu  and  other  ceremonies.  The 
conditions  of  life,  too  have  changed,  and  even  if  the  people  would, 
they  could  not  keep  alive  the  elaborate  Ogasawara  rules  of  polite  con- 
duct..” J.  M.  Dixon,  Japanese  Etiquette,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  XIII,  pp.  1-2. 

usCf.  Griffis,  The  Religions  of  Japan,  p.  312. 


37 


land.  The  Buddhist  priests  had  taught  the  ethics  of  Confucius 
along  with  their  own  creed,  so  that  the  two  were  hardly  separate 
for  many  hundred  years ; but  soon  after  feudalism  was  estab- 
lished Confucianism  was  made  over  again  by  the  Japanese119 
and  gained  popular  favor  for  its  own  sake.  Patriotism  and 
loyalty,  derived  from  Shinto,  calm  trust  in  fate,  causing  disdain 
of  life  and  fearlessness  of  death,  the  outcome  of  the  austere 
philosophy  of  the  Zen120  sect  of  Buddhism,  and  the  ethical 
teaching  of  Confucius,  jointly  producd  Bushido,  “The  Way  of 
the  Samurai”.  This,  though  not  a religion,  crystallized  more 
nearly  than  aught  else  the  religious  impulses  and  the  higher 
aspirations  of  the  upper  classes  of  society. 

Early  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  Japanese,  who  had  for 
about  three  hundred  years  been  pursuing  the  policy  of  seclu- 
sion, were  terribly  frightened  by  Kublai  Khan,  the  Mongol. 
Having  overwhelmed  Korea  and  China,  he  sent  envoys  on 
several  occasions  to  Japan.  Some  of  these  messengers  were 
expelled  and  some  were  killed  by  the  Japanese.  The  whole 
affair  covered  twelve  years,  but  finally,  after  immense  loss  of 
life  in  which  a typhoon  played  an  important  part,  Kublai  gave 
up  the  attempt  to  subjugate  Japan.121  The  country  remained 
closed  against  trade  with  other  nations,  but  after  this  Mongol 
invasion  had  been  repelled  Japanese  pirates  infested  the  seas  as 
far  south  as  Siam.  Official  intercourse  with  Japan  was  re- 

118  Of  the  five  moral  relations,  the  Chinese  made  that  between 
father  and  son  central  and  to  them  filial  piety  has  always  been 
fundamental.  The  Japanese,  while  emphasizing  filial  piety,  gave  the 
first  place  to  the  relation  between  master  and  servant,-  the  govern- 
ing and  the  governed.  This  harmonized  well  with  Shinto,  which  in- 
culcated reverence  for  the  sovereign  on  the  part  of  all. 

120  “Zen  represents  human  effort  to  reach  through  meditation  zones 
of  thought  beyond  the  range  of  verbal  expression.”  Hearn. 

121  Since  then  Japan  has  never  been  attacked  from  without.  This 
attempt  of  the  Mongols  hardened  the  insular  prejudice  of  the  Japanese 
into  a desire  for  complete  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  After 
the  expulsion  of  the  Christian  missionaries  several  centuries  later  this 
desire  became  almost  identical  with  the  instinct  for  self-preserva- 
tion. 


38 


vived  by  China  and  Korea  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, but  not  for  the  purpose  of  exchanging  courtesies,  or  for 
negotiating  treaties,  but  to  make  complaints  against  Japanese 
piracy.  The  usual  reply  of  the  Japanese  government  was  that 
it  was  unable  to  control  the  pirates ; but  one  of  the  shoguns, 
who  appreciated  the  arts  and  luxury  of  China  and  Korea,  took 
steps  for  the  suppression  of  piracy  in  order  to  foster  trade  with 
those  countries.122  Thinking  that  by  this  method  he  would  be 
able  to  maintain  his  extravagant  mode  of  life  he  sent  embassies 
and  priests  abroad  to  engage  in  commerce.  Fifty  years  later  a 
commercial  treaty  was  made  with  Korea,  by  the  terms  of  which 
Japan  might  send  ships  to  Korea  for  one  hundred  thousand 
bushels  of  Korean  beans  and  rice  each  year.  One  hundred  and 
fifty  years  after  this  the  famous  shogun  Hideyoshi,  “the  Napol- 
eon of  Japan",  with  dreams  of  a world-wide  empire,  organ- 
ized an  expedition  to  conquer  Korea  and  then  China.  His  ob- 
ject was  conquest  and  not  trade.  He  met  with  disaster,123  but 
the  contact  with  the  peninsula  was  not  altogether  without  good 
effects,  for  the  Japanese  gained  some  useful  knowledge  of  cer- 
tain industrial  arts. 

Both  the  Portuguese  and  Japanese  accounts  of  the  discovery 
of  Japan  by  the  former  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
are  much  confused,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Portuguese 
were  the  first  Europeans  to  reach  the  coasts  of  Japan.  They 
brought  firearms,  woven  fabrics,  and  other  luxuries,  and  intro- 
duced tobacco  and  potatoes ; in  return  they  carried  away  large 
quantities  of  precious  metals,  chiefly  gold  bullion.124  Spanish 

mCf.  Hishida,  The  International  Position  of  Japan,  pp.  68,  seq. 

123  This  invasion  of  Korea,  which  was  absolutely  without  justifica- 
tion, cost  Japan  more  than  two  hundred  thousands  lives.  Thus  ended 
relations  with  Korea,  which  became  the  "Hermit  Nation".  Two  wars 
are  the  sequel  of  Japan’s  relations  with  her  during  the  last  few  decades. 

124  Marco  Polo  had  spread  the  report  over  Europe  that  Japan  was 
a rich  country  with  gold  almost  as  abundant  as  lead  was  in  Europe. 
Japan  was  really  rich,  but  the  stream  of  gold  began  to  flow  outwards, 
and  millions  of  dollars  left  every  year.  Several  hundred  million  dol- 
lars left  within  a century.  On  this  general  subject  cf.  Nitobe,  Inter- 
course between  the  U.  S.  and  Japan,  pp.  7-1 1. 


39 


merchants  soon  followed  the  Portuguese.  Both  nations  sent 
Christian  missionaries,  but  among  the  Spaniards  friars  were 
more  numerous  than  merchants.  Christianity  was  warmly 
welcomed,  and  within  a generation  there  were  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  converts.  Several  feudal  lords  were  baptized  and 
sent  representatives  all  the  way  to  Rome  to  receive  the  blessing 
of  the  Pope.  The  Christians  had  the  protection  of  Nobunaga, 
the  shogun  who  so  fiercely  persecuted  the  Buddhists.  Rivalry 
between  Portuguese  and  Spaniards125  was  most  unfortunate  in  a 
land  which  was  so  spiritually  fertile,  for  in  one  way  or  another 
the  suspicion  was  aroused  that  the  ultimate  purpose  of  both  was 
to  gain  possession  of  Japan  for  the  Pope  or  for  some  one 
else  in  Europe.  An  order  from  the  shogun  banishing  all  the 
missionaries  called  forth  loud  protest  from  the  feudal  lords,  the 
converted  and  many  unconverted  ones,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  in  violation  of  the  freedom  of  religious  opinion.  A few 
left,  but  the  edict  was  not  strictly  enforced.  Persecution  later 
followed  and  the  roll  of  martyrs  is  a long  one.  The  estimates 
vary  widely,  but  in  1605  the  number  of  Christians  was  between 
half  a million  and  a million  and  a half ; possibly  there  were  even 
more.  Christianity  was  interdicted  and  all  who  did  not  recant 
and  trample  upon  the  cross  were  ordered  to  be  put  to  death. 
With  the  causes  of  this  we  cannot  deal  here.126  Religion,  poli- 

125  Cf.  Satow,  The  Origin  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Rivalry  in 
Japan,  T.  A.  S.  J„  Vol.  XVIII,  pp.  133-156. 

“'“It  must  be  admitted  that  the  intolerance  which  the  Jesuits  had 

taught  must  bear  a great  portion  of  the  responsibility Moreover, 

the  mutual  hostility  of  the  Christian  orders,  especially  after  the  date 
of  the  arrival  in  Japan  of  some  Spanish  monks  from  Manila,  could 
not  but  prejudice  the  Christian  cause.  And  again,  the  unchristian  life 
and  evil  example  of  the  foreign  traders  and  seamen  at  Nagasaki, 
Hirado  and  elsewhere,  could  not  contribute  to  increase  respect  for 
Christianity  itself.  Those  ports  were  the  rendezvous  of  the  most  aban- 
doned European  adventurers,  who  delighted  in  vice  of  all  kinds, 

and  thus  excited  the  disgust  of  all  the  better  minded  among  the  Japan- 
ese  In  the  earliest  Dutch  books  about  Japan,  the  chief  cause 

assigned  is  the  treachery  of  the  Jesuits,  who  had  endeavored  to  turn 
Japan  into  a Portuguese  or  Papal  province The  English  and 


40 


tics,  and  trade  were  all  jointly  concerned  and  the  result  was  that 
the  missionaries  were  expelled  from  the  land.  The  country 
was  closed  and  sealed.  Only  a few  Dutchmen  were  allowed  to 
remain,127  for  the  purposes  of  trade  only,  on  the  little  artificial 
island  of  Deshima,  virtually  a prison-house,  in  the  harbour  of 
Nagasaki.  The  edict  of  1637  forbidding  foreigners  to  land  on 
the  Japanese  coast  also  forbade  the  natives  to  leave  it,  and  this 
exclusive  and  inclusive  policy  was  jealously  maintained  for  the 
next  two  hundred  years  and  more. 

For  more  than  a third  of  a millenium  half  a million  men  had 
been  armed,  and  much  of  this  time  there  was  civil  war.  To- 
kugawa  Ieyasu,  the  greatest  of  all  shoguns,  in  1603  reaped  the 
fruits  of  the  efforts  of  his  immediate  predecessors,  Nobunaga 
and  Hideyoshi,  almost  as  great  men  as  himself,  and  put  an  end 
to  the  long-prevalent  state  of  warfare.  The  government  was 
apparently  feudal,  but  under  Ieyasu  it  became  virtually  a mon- 

Dutch  also  essentially  influenced  the  decision  of  Ieyasu  and  his  suc- 
cessors, since  it  was  for  their  commercial  interests  to  drive  out  the 
Portuguese,  and  they  put  no  restraint  on  their  hatred  of  the  Catholic 
Portuguese  and  Spaniards.”  Rein,  Japan,  pp.  309,  seq. 

‘‘Whatever  was  the  real  cause,  the  years  of  Hideyoshi  and  Ieyasu’s 
domination  saw  the  banishment  of  native  converts,  the  expulsion  of 
foreign  ecclesiastics,  and  the  summary  trials  and  wholesale  slaughter 
which  rival  in  horror  the  fires  of  Smithfield  or  the  rack  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion. These  outrages  gave  rise  in  turn  to  the  revolt  of  Shimabara 
in  1637,  where  30,000  Christian  peasants  took  arms  against  the  perse- 
cutors. This  revolt  was  extinguished  in  the  blood  of  the  insurgents, 
and  Catholicism  disappeared  from  our  national  life,  surviving  till  the 
present  era  only  in  some  of  the  retired  villages.”  Nitobe,  Intercourse 
with  Japan,  p.  13. 

127  The  English  had  been  unsuccessful  and  voluntarily  withdrew  in 
1623.  They  later  tried  in  vain  to  open  up  relations.  The  Chinese  were 
not  altogether  excluded.  In  1684  the  annual  importation  of  the  Chinese 
merchants  was  limited  to  the  same  as  that  of  the  Dutch,  about  $840,000. 
In  1688  they  were  confined  to  a place  which  “had  the  horrible  aspect 
of  a strong  prison”,  and  for  this  they  paid  a yearly  rent  of  over 
$2,000.  Before  this,  rich  young  men  from  China,  “came  over  to  Japan, 
‘purely  for  their  pleasure’,  and  to  spend  part  of  their  money  with 
Japanese  women”.  Cf.  Kaempfer,  History  of  Japan,  Vol.  II,  pp.  248- 
253,  and  Hildreth,  Japan  as  it  was  and  is,  Vol.  I,  pp.  278-281. 


4i 


archy.  To  be  sure  the  “Son  of  Heaven”  reigned,  although 
Ieyasu  governed  the  land.  He  paid  personal  homage  to  the 
emperor,  for  whom  he  built  a palace  at  Kyoto,  and  he  made 
ample  provision  for  the  welfare  of  the  imperial  family,  but,  un- 
der the  guise  of  the  sanctity  of  the  high  office  of  emperor,  he 
deprived  the  sovereign  of  the  last  remnants  of  political  author- 
ity. The  feudal  lords  wielded  semi-royal  power  in  their  own 
dominions  but  each  was  controlled  more  than  ever  before  by 
the  shogun.  The  daimyos  were  so  arranged  by  him  on  the 
political  chess  board  that  political  combinations  between  them 
were  rendered  impossible.  All  were  required  to  spend  half  of 
the  time  in  the  shogun’s  capital  and  to  leave  their  families  there 
as  hostages  during  the  other  half.  They  were  also  made  to 
maintain  there  a number  of  retainers  ready  at  call  to  do  the 
bidding  of  the  shogun.  A system  of  espionage  kept  him  in- 
formed of  even  the  most  trivial  acts  of  the  smallest  and  most 
distant  daimyo.  Thus  every  element  of  individual  ambition 
was  crushed  out.  The  peace  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
which  followed  would  at  least  seem  necessarily  to  lead  to 
stagnation.  “The  Legacy  of  Ieyasu”  outlined  the  policy  which 
was  followed  by  his  thirteen  successors,  all  of  his  family. 
Iemitsu,  his  grandson,  perfected  the  system.  Theoretically  the 
daimyos  all  stood  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  shogun,  but  he 
summoned  them  to  his  castle  at  Yedo  (the  present  Tokyo)  and 
made  them  all  swear  allegiance  to  him  in  the  same  manner  as 
his  own  retainers.  It  was  to  avoid  complications  that  he 
closed  the  country.  Feudalism  lasted  for  more  than  two  hun- 
dred years  after  Iemitsu  died  in  1615,  but  social  development 
had  ended.  National  ideas  and  ideals  had  been  cast  in  a 
mould,  and  the  people  fixed  in  classes,  when  the  country  was 
sealed. 

Japanese  social  history  by  no  means  ends  with  feudalism,  or 
even  with  the  overflow  of  the  feudal  system.  It  is  however 
well  to  rest  here  and  now  turn  to  analyze  the  social  structure. 
We  shall  then  be  able  better  to  understand  and  estimate  the 
forces  at  work  in  present  day  society. 


42 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Social  Structure. 

Upon  examination  of  the  Japanese  social  structure  of  a half 
century  ago  we  find  it  substantially  the  same  as  it  was  at  the 
beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Indeed  in  its  essentials 
there  was  almost  no  change  in  the  organization  of  Japanese 
society  from  the  time  of  the  appointment  of  the  “barbarian-sub- 
duing generalissimo”  in  1192  until  the  appearance  of  the 
“western  barbarians”  in  1854.  This  is  not  surprising,  for  every 
element  of  the  social  order  of  the  Restoration  period  existed  in 
germ  almost  a thousand  years  before.  History  does  not  afford 
another  example  of  a society  worth  the  name  developing  natur- 
ally and  free  from  outside  disturbance.  That  external  influ- 
ences were  at  work  cannot  be  denied,  for  the  country  was  not 
hermetically  sealed,  but  these  were  mere  perturbations,  not 
strong  enough  to  effect  any  change  in  the  social  order  or  to  in- 
terfere with  its  evolution. 

Pride  of  rank  and  division  into  classes  has  always  been 
characteristic  of  Japanese  society.  In  all  ages  to  be  in  any 
way  connected  with  the  imperial  line  has  given  the  highest  rank, 
no  matter  in  whose  hands  the  administrative  power  might  be  at 
the  time.  The  ancient  division  into  descendants  of  gods,  or  of 
the  imperial  families,  or  of  naturalized  foreigners,  has  been  used 
to  confirm  the  one-tribe  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  Japanese 
people,  including  the  bulk  of  them  into  the  second  division  and 
thus  connecting  them  with  the  imperial  line.  A strict  system  of 
registration  caused  faithful  record  to  be  kept  of  the  families  of 
those  who  had  successfully  undergone  the  ordeal  which  proved 
their  patrician  descent.  Pride  prevented  frequent  marriages 
with  inferiors.  For  various  reasons  emperors  elevated  families, 
altogether  overlooking  their  previous  position  in  the  social 


43 


scale;  and  such  families  frequently  rose  to  still  higher  rank 
through  the  influence  they  were  able  to  exert.  Some  of  the 
shoguns  who  began  life  as  farmers’  sons  reached  almost  the 
highest  eminence.  Many  of  the  daimyos  occupied  their  high 
positions  in  society  not  because  of  noble  blood,  but  solely  by 
reason  of  the  fact  that  by  military  force  they  were  able  to  be- 
come feudal  lords.  Again,  it  was  certainly  not  because  of  any 
connection  with  patrician  families  that  the  samurai  in  time 
came  to  be  regarded  as  superior  to  others.  There  was  usually 
a wide  gulf  between  the  so-called  upper  and  lower  classes, — 
patrician  and  plebian,  governing  and  governed.  All  of  the  lat- 
ter were  not  on  the  same  level ; but  among  them,  too,  there 
were  grades.  There  were  barriers  and  restrictions  of  various 
kinds  making  it  almost  impossible  to  rise,  but  instances  are  not 
wanting  where  persons  gave  proof  of  signal  ability  by  leaving 
behind  them  the  lowly  stations  in  which  they  were  born. 

All  classes  were  so  definitely  fixed  that  there  was  almost  a 
system  of  caste;  it  is,  however,  well  not  to  use  that  term,  for 
it  is  usually  employed  to  designate  some  distinction  based  on 
religion,  whereas  in  Japan  the  classes  were  determined  by  other 
standards.1  The  system  of  Ieyasu  implied  a social  scale 
which  summed  up  the  principles  according  to  which  division 
had  been  made  before  his  time,  and  which  continued  in  force 
until  a few  decades  ago. 

The  basis  of  Japanese  social  organization  has  always  been 
the  family,  all  the  members  holding  the  same  social  position  as 
the  head.  In  early  times  the  members  of  a criminal’s  house- 
hold, if  not  put  to  death  with  him,  were  reduced  to  slavery.2 

1 It  is  possible  that  the  “outcasts”  referred  to  later  were  such  because 
the  taking  of  life  was  concerned,  and  because  this  was  a crime  ac- 
cording to  Buddhism.  Cf.  H.  Faulds,  Nine  Years  in  Nipon,  p.  284. 

2 An  edict  issued  as  late  as  1692  is  as  follows:  “The  children  of 
criminals  who  have  been  executed  either  at  the  stake  or  by  crucifixion 
or  by  exposure,  shall  suffer  the  death  of  their  parent,  except  when  they 
are  below  fifteen  years  of  age  and  are  proved  not  to  have  had  any 
share  in  the  crime.  In  the  latter  case  they  may  be  entrusted  to  a rela- 
tive until  the  age  of  fifteen,  after  which  they  shall  be  exiled.”  T.  A. 
S.  J„  Vol.  XXII,  p.  279. 


44 


While  a woman  was  never  allowed  to  have  more  than  one  hus- 
band, the  man  was  permitted  to  have  concubines  as  well  as  a 
wife,  and  thus  he  might  be  the  head  of  several  households, 
including  the  servants.  The  head  of  the  family  had  almost 
absolute  power  over  its  members  a'nd  also  over  the  property ; 
but  his  rights  carried  with  them  corresponding  responsibilities. 
In  his  family  subordinate  households  related  by  blood  might 
be  included,  and  he  be  thus  the  head  of  a group  of  a hundred 
or  even  a hundred  and  fifty  persons.3  The  connection  of 
one  family  with  others  produced  the  great  families,  or  houses, 
or  clans  already  referred  to.  The  individual  members  of 
a family  did  not  have  a separate  existence  or  have 
the  right  to  hold  property.4  There  was  necessity  for  the 
perpetuation  of  a family;  if  a man  died  leaving  no  male  chil- 
dren his  estate  reverted  to  the  state.5  The  greatest  reason 
for  keeping  up  the  family  line  was  that  there  might  be  some  one 
to  reverence  and  worship  the  family  ancestors ; the  living  fam- 
ily was  only  a link  between  the  past  and  the  future.6  These 

3 Hearn  and  some  others  give  to  the  family  too  wide  an  extent. 
“The  Japanese  family  in  early  times  meant  very  much  more  than 
‘household’ ; it  might  include  a hundred  or  a thousand  households ; it 
was  something  like  the  Greek  ytvos  or  the  Roman  gens, — the  patriar- 
chal family  in  the  largest  sense  of  the  term.”  Hearn,  Japan,  p.  28. 
There  was  a family  between  the  gens,  or  clan,  and  the  family  as  we 
understand  it. 

4 In  this  and  many  other  respects  the  family  has  been  greatly  modi- 
fied since  1868,  but  even  now  it  is  quite  different  from  what  we  under- 
stand by  the  word.  In  former  times  Japan  had  the  pater  familias  sys- 
tem of  Ancient  Rome,  but  to-day  some  individuality  is  allowed,  and 
every  member  has  the  right  to  hold  property,  although  under  certain 
restrictions.  Cf.  Baron  Suyematsu,  Family  Relations  in  Japan, 
Transactions  of  the  Japan  Society  of  London,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  391  seq. 

5Ieyasu  ordered  ( Legacy , Chap.  46)  that  persons  should  marry  upon 
reaching  sixteen  years  of  age.  “The  family  estate  of  a person  dying 
without  male  issue  and  without  having  adopted  a son,  is  forfeited  with- 
out any  regard  to  his  relations  or  connections ” “In  the  event  of 

an  infant  on  the  point  of  death  wishing  to  adopt  a child,  there  is  no 
objection  to  his  being  allowed  to  prolong  his  race  in  the  person  of  one 
who  is  of  age.”  Ibid,  Chap.  47. 

6 “The  patriarchal  family  was  shaped  to  maintain  and  to  provide  for 


45 


two  considerations  served  to  produce  an  artificial  rather  than 
a natural  family.  It  was  possible  for  a father  to  abdicate  and 
give  up  his  position  as  head  of  the  family  to  a son.  A wicked 
son  might  be  sent  away  and  thus  debarred  from  the  family. 
Younger  sons  in  families  where  there  was  already  an  heir 
might  be  given  outright  to  a family  in  which  there  was  no  male 
issue.  A childless  couple  might  adopt  both  a son  and  a 
daughter  who  should  take  the  parents’  name  and  afterward 
marry  each  other.  Marriages  were  usually  arranged  by  the 
family ; in  any  case  the  family  sanction  was  necessary.7 
This  unity  of  the  family  was  one  of  the  causes  already  so 
often  noticed  of  the  tendency  for  all  offices  and  honors  to 
become  hereditary.  The  family  has  brought  Japan  some  of 
her  greatest  and  most  difficult  problems,  but  it  has  also 
been  the  means  of  preserving  the  most  valuable  institutions. 
It  is  central,  and  its  importance  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

Here  is  probably  the  best  place  to  note  the  position  of 
woman.  As  was  pointed  out,  woman  held  a high  place  in 
early  society.  With  the  advent  of  Chinese  civilization  her 
position  was  lowered,  for  neither  Buddhism  nor  Confucian- 
ism gave  her  as  high  a status  as  did  purely  Japanese  ideas. 
Bushido,  a product  of  the  Japanese,  having  a large  admixture 
of  Chinese  elements,  also  did  little  to  elevate  woman.  The 
Japanese,  however,  while  never  treating  woman  as  man’s 
equal,  have  not  been  willing  to  relegate  her  to  so  low  a place 
as  that  to  which  she  is  assigned  by  most  Eastern  nations. 
Children  have  usually  been  objects  of  affection  and  tender 

the  cult  of  its  dead,  and  neglect  of  which  cult  was  believed  to  involve 
misfortune.”  Hearn,  op.  cit.,  p.  66. 

7 Practically  the  same  rule  holds  true  to-day.  “A  man  may  not 
marry  without  the  consent  of  his  parents  until  he  is  thirty,  a woman 
until  she  is  twenty-five.”  In  ancient  times  the  penalty  for  marrying 
without  the  consent  of  the  family  was  fifty  stripes  with  a whip.  When 
a man  marries  he  seldom  goes  to  a home  of  his  own,  but  he  and  his 
wife  usually  go  to  live  with  his  father’s  household.  The  shinruikwai, 
or  family  council,  decides  practically  every  important  matter  pertain- 
ing to  every  member. 


46 


care ; but  the  occasional  testimony  of  the  laws  and  records 
concerning  infanticide  forbid  too  sweeping  generalizations. 

All  other  features  of  Japanese  society  might  be  and  have 
been  changed  in  one  age  or  another ; one,  the  most  important, 
has  persisted.  The  position  of  the  emperor  is  the  key  to 
Japanese  history.  He  reigns  as  the  head  of  the  nation,  the 
descendant  of  the  gods.  At  times  his  moral  power  over  the 
people  was  altogether  wanting,  but  his  sovereign  right  is  not 
based  on  virtue  but  divine  descent.  Administrative  power  was 
seized  by  individuals,  and  passed  on  in  the  same  family ; but 
regents  and  shoguns  all  received  from  him  their  appoint- 
ment.8 Honors  conferred  by  him  gave  greater  distinction 
than  the  highest  granted  by  the  greatest  of  his  appointees. 
Ieyasu,  the  greatest  shogun,  gave  unusual  homage  to  his 
sovereign.9  The  temporal  ruler  managed  the  worldly  affairs 
of  the  empire,  maintaining  that  sacred  seclusion  was  befitting 
the  “Son  of  Heaven”.  Common  people  came  even  to  question 
his  existence  on  this  earth,  but  devoutly  worshipped  him  as  the 
head  of  the  nation.  There  was  thus  some  justification  for  the 
notion  in  the  West  a half  century  ago  that  Japan  had  a sacred 
and  also  a temporal  ruler,  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  why 
foreign  powers  had  for  some  years  to  deal  with  a dual  govern- 
ment in  which  authority  was  divided  in  some  strange  way. 

Prior  to  the  Great  Reform  Japan  had  an  emperor  but  no 
state.  Then  the  Chinese  pattern  of  government  gave  the  form 
of  a state,  but  the  political  network  swallowed  up  the  emperor. 
During  the  succeeding  millenium  of  rudimentary  and  then 

8 “The  shogun,  the  real  head  of  the  shogunate,  was  always  ap- 
pointed by  the  emperor,  and  exercised  in  his  name  only  the  civil  and 
military  administration  of  the  country,  which  were  accredited  to  him 
as  the  hereditary  right  of  his  family.  Thus,  what  are  called  the  ‘rights 
of  sovereignity’  have  remained  uninterruptedly  in  the  person  of  the  em- 
peror since  the  foundation  of  the  Japanese  Empire.”  Japan  by  the 
Japanese,  p.  19. 

3 He  provided  that  the  coronation  expenses  of  the  emperor  should 
not  be  parsimoniously  diminished  by  his  successors,  and  made  better 
provision  for  his  support  than  his  predecessors  had  done.  Cf.  Legacy, 
Chap.  95. 


47 


organized  feudalism  the  institution  of  the  emperor  preserved 
the  continuity  of  the  national  life,  and  when  finally  he  was 
restored  in  1868  Japan  for  the  first  time  as  a nation  had  a 
state,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the  emperor.  In  his  person 
the  nation  is  united,  and  he  is  the  inspiration  of  the  national 
greatness.  To  him  and  his  ancestors10  all  national  success  is 
attributed;  and  because  of  him  the  Japanese  people  have  a 
reverence  for  authority  not  surpassed  in  any  other  nation. 

The  imperial  household  law  provides  for  a successor  to  the 
throne,  but  in  the  event  of  failure  in  the  direct  line  there  have 
been  several  princely  families  from  which  an  heir  might  be 
taken.  Bearing  in  mind  the  plural  wives  of  each  emperor  we 
understand  the  large  and  ever-increasing  number  of  nobles. 
The  empty  life  of  the  court  and  its  surroundings  through  suc- 
cessive generations  did  not  add  to  their  virility.  Shortly  after 
the  Reform  two  hundred  and  thirteen  princes  were  censured 
for  their  laziness,  but  their  portion  of  salt  and  rice  was  not 
withheld  from  them.11  At  that  time  ability  was  appreciated, 
and  rank  or  office  was  given  only  to  those  of  princely  blood 
who  showed  capacity.  The  families  of  regents  and  others 
were  added  to  the  nobility,  but  in  theory  nobility  of  blood  was 
usually  more  highly  accounted  than  the  rank  which  went  with 
the  most  exalted  office.  Under  feudalism  certain  noble  fam- 
ilies enjoyed  the  exclusive  right  of  serving  as  ministers  of  state 
but  this  was  empty  formalism,  for  the  administration  was 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  military  government  of  the  shoguns. 
The  families  of  these  kuge  (nobles),12  continued  in  existence 
for  hundreds  and  even  a thousand  years  or  more ; and  received 
the  respect  due  them  because  of  their  relation  to  the  court.13 

10  “The  empire  of  Japan  shall  be  reigned  over  and  governed  by 
a line  of  emperors  for  ages  eternal.”  “The  emperor  is  sacred  and 
violable.”  Constitution  of  Japan,  Arts.  I and  III. 

11  Cf.  Asakawa,  Early  Institutional  Life,  pp.  317-341. 

12  It  will  not  be  advisable  within  the  limits  of  this  essay  to  discuss 
the  various  sub-classes  of  kuge,  daimyo,  samurai,  etc.,  but  each  of  these 
will  be  spoken  of  in  terms  which  will  apply  to  the  whole  class. 

13  They  resided  at  the  capital  of  the  emperor  and  not  at  that  of  the 


Their  effeminacy  and  degeneracy  were  the  cause  of  their 
receiving  scant  support.  All  were  not  poor,  for  a few  became 
daimyos,  and  others  had  other  sources  of  income,  but  the 
majority  were  compelled  to  eke  out  their  sustenance  by  paint- 
ing and  even  by  manual  employments.  These  lessons  of  pov- 
erty were  not  lost  on  them,  and  while  maintaining  a semblance 
of  dignity  they  became  stronger  in  every  way  simultaneously 
with  the  dissipation  and  loss  of  vigor  of  those  who  controlled 
wealth  and  power  under  the  feudal  regime.  The  political  tide 
which  turned  toward  the  emperor  before  the  Restoration 
carried  with  it  a few,  although  only  a few,  kitge  who  had 
greater  political  power  than  most  of  the  feudal  lords. 

The  emperor,  as  the  fountain  of  honor,  had  the  sole  right 
to  confer  titles  and  rank.  Forced  from  the  sovereign  though 
it  may  have  been,  the  shogun  prized  highly  his  title  of  general- 
issimo, and  he  was  usually  invested  with  office  by  an  imperial 
delegate.  He  was  only  a daimyo  possessing  power  and  ranked 
beneath  the  huge.  As  has  been  pointed  out,  feudalism  had 
begun  before  the  appointment  of  the  shogun  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  his  military  government.  On  the  other  hand  the 
military  organization  of  society,  then  already  an  accomplished 
fact,  was  not  from  that  moment  identical  with  the  feudal  order ; 
but  it  was  inevitable  that  the  military  governors  appointed  to 
assist  the  nominal  civil  governors  should  soon  sweep  them  out 
of  office.14  No  order  of  the  emperor  could  become  law  with- 
out the  approval  of  the  shogun.  Those  who  became  feudal 

shogun.  Of  course  those  who  were  nominally  provincial  governors 
lived  at  first  in  the  provinces. 

14  The  bureaucratic  government  which  grew  out  of  the  Reform  had 
a continuous  nominal  existence,  and  the  retention  of  this  skeleton  of 
civil  organization,  the  high  offices  of  which  the  emperor  filled  with  huge 
who  as  officials  were  shorn  of  power,  was  not  without  its  use.  The 
emperor,  his  court,  and  many  of  his  subjects  nourished  the  hope  that 
ultimately  the  power  would  be  restored  to  him.  When  that  did  occur 
the  machinery  of  government  was  ready  and  what  had  been  nominal 
for  a thousand  years  became  actual. 

As  our  interest  is  social  and  not  political  no  attention  will  be  paid 
to  the  administration  of  the  feudal  government. 


49 


lords  were  the  representatives  of  the  shogun,  chosen  by  him  as 
his  executives  in  the  several  districts.  Because  he  was  entrust- 
ed with  the  secular  administration  by  the  emperor,  those  taking 
part  in  any  insurrection  not  having  the  sovereign’s  approval 
would  be  branded  as  traitors,  and  the  sagacious  shogun,  Ieyasu, 
took  care  to  arrange  that  none  of  the  other  daimyos  might 
secure  that  approval  from  the  sacred  being  who  reigned  as 
emperor.  It  was  obviously  impossible  for  any  family  to  retain 
this  high  position  having  nothing  but  the  sword  with  which  to 
maintain  itself,  and  with  the  gradual  decay  of  the  whole  feudal 
system  it  was  inevitable  that  the  institution  of  shogun  should 
disappear. 

In  the  tendency  of  every  office,  honor,  and  privilege  to  be- 
come hereditary  in  Japan,  and  in  the  relation  of  the  institution 
of  the  Japanese  family  to  this  tendency,  we  have  the  explan- 
ation of  much  that  otherwise  seems  ano'molous.  The  regula- 
tions instituted  at  the  Reform  governing  the  periodic  redistri- 
bution of  much  of  the  land  almost  immediately  fell  into  disuse, 
and  the  families  holding  it  came  to  regard  themselves  as 
practical  owners.  Although  they  could  not  sell  it,  they  could 
pass  it  on  to  their  posterity  and  as  long  as  the  family  was 
perpetuated  the  land  might  remain  in  its  possession,  unless 
forfeited  because  of  crime  or  similar  reasons.  The  salary  of  a 
minister  was  the  produce  of  seventy-five  to  a hundred  acres  of 
land,  and  of  other  officials  from  two  to  fifty  acres.  Public 
merit  was  similarly  rewarded,  and  the  favor  shown  to  religion 
put  the  temples  and  priests  into  control  of  large  landed  estates. 
All  such  land  was  tax-free.  As  practically  none  was  ever 
restored  to  the  government,  and  as  each  new  claim  to  the 
emperor’s  favor  added  to  the  non-taxable  area,  the  occupants 
of  the  remaining  portions  were  subject  to  onerous  burdens;  but 
the  opening  up  of  new  lands  and  the  ability  of  the  peasants  to 
produce  all  that  was  needed  for  the  entire  population  prevented 
any  intolerable  hardship. 

Most  of  this  tax-free  land  was  not  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  provincial  governors,  and  this,  coupled  with  the  fact 


that  until  the  establishment  of  organized  feudalism  the  central 
government  was  usually  so  weak  as  to  be  unable  to  exercise 
any  control  in  the  country  districts,  gave  to  the  strongest  man 
in  each  locality  almost  sovereign  power.  In  some  instances 
this  person  was  the  civil  governor,  perhaps  a kuge ; in  others  it 
was  the  largest  land-owner,  or  holder ; and  in  still  others  any 
person  who  could  maintain  himself  against  all  comers.  The 
first  shogun  appointed  as  military  governors  his  own  retainers 
or  favorites,  but  time  proved  that  in  certain  cases  a local  poten- 
tate would  attain  the  ruling  power  in  the  district.  The  shogun- 
ate  influence  was  of  maximum  intensity  at  the  political  center 
and  diminished  rapidly  until  at  the  outer  edge  it  became  almost 
zero.  This  was  the  cause  of  the  five  centuries  of  continued  war- 
fare. There  was  absolutely  nothing  of  national  unity  except 
such  as  centered  around  the  unseen  emperor.  These  provincial 
magnates,  without  reviewing  the  steps  by  which  they  gained 
their  power  and  control,  came  to  be  daimyos  or  feudal  lords. 
One  was  lord  of  eight  provinces  and  parts  of  two  others, — per- 
haps a fourth  of  the  total  area  of  the  empire  at  that  time.  In 
certain  provinces  the  territory  was  divided  up  among  several 
small  daimyos.  Daimyates  changed  frequently,  for  the  sword 
was  the  only  recognized  title  to  possession.  About  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century  these  independent  feudal  barons  reached 
the  zenith  of  their  greatness.  When  Ieyasu  assumed  control  of 
the  whole  country  he  recognized  four  other  daimyos  as  his 
equals,  and  when  they  visited  his  castle  at  Yedo  (Tokyo),  he 
went  to  the  edge  of  the  city  to  meet  them;  but  his  grandson, 
Iemitsu,  assumed  absolute  authority  and  put  all  under  him  on 
a level.  These  two  shoguns  dispossessed  some  daimyos  and 
created  others.15  They  laid  down  the  principle  that  the  lords 
should  not  remain  too  long  in  one  fief,  and  accordingly 
occasionally  removed  them  from  one  place  to  another.16  They 

15  The  total  number  of  daimyos  of  all  classes  at  this  time  was  two 
hundred  and  ninety-two. 

18  “The  territories  entrusted  to  the  Daimyo,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Kokushiu,  shall  not  be  perpetuated  to  successive  generations.  They 
should  be  interchanged  every  year,  the  territories  being  apportioned  rel- 


did  not,  however,  lightly  interfere  with  the  lords  who  had  great- 
est power  and  influence. 

To  understand  the  samurai  we  must  revert  to  the  military 
organization.17  The  Great  Reform  saw  the  abolition  of  a 
military  class  and  the  prohibition  of  the  bearing  of  arms.18 
An  army  was,  however,  provided  for  by  the  requirement  that 
the  strongest  men  in  each  “neighboring  five”  should  be  pre- 
pared to  fight  when  necessary.19  It  would  seem  that  the 
militant  spirit  and  mere  love  of  warfare  caused  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  military  shogunate.  There  was  at  that  time 
no  separate  samurai  class.  Soldiers  were  necessary  to  guard 
a country,  and  food  was  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of 
troops,  so  that  soldiers  and  farmers  were  mutually  dependent. 
Each  farmer  prepared  himself  and,  selecting  from  among 
those  living  on  his  land  the  men  who  were  physically  strongest 
and  therefore  best  qualified  to  become  soldiers,  trained  them 

atively.  Should  the  territory  entrusted  to  one  Daimyo  remain  in  his 
possession  for  too  long  a time,  he  is  certain  to  become  ungovernable 
and  oppress  the  people.”  Legacy,  Chap.  49.  The  ostensible  purpose  of 
this  was  to  prevent  misgovernment,  but  it  was  undoubtedly  to  prevent 
a daimyo  from  acquiring  local  influence  or  possibly  uniting  with 
the  neighboring  daimyos  in  rebellion  against  the  shogun. 

"“Since  the  period  of  Taiho  (701-703  A.  D.)  armies  have  been  or- 
ganized, and  young  people  capable  of  bearing  arms  have  been  called 
upon  to  enlist.  In  the  time  of  the  emperor  Jito  (687-696)  one-fourth  of 
the  young  men  arriving  at  majority  were  enlisted.  This  is  the  origin 
of  the  system  of  conscription  in  this  country.  Subsequently,  the  as- 
sumption of  the  power  of  the  state  by  military  families,  led  to  the 
isolation  of  the  military  from  the  farming  class,  and,  all  military  affairs 
having  been  monopolized  by  the  one  class,  the  old  conscription  system 
was  for  a long  time  in  a state  of  extinction.”  Ito,  Commentaries  on  the 
Constitution  of  the  Empire,  p.  40. 

18  “A  general  interdict  was  then  issued  against  the  unauthorized  pos- 
session of  arms  and  armor  by  private  persons,  but  dwellers  in  the  remote 
parts  of  the  east  were  exempted  from  this  prohibition  on  the  ground 
of  their  liability  to  attack  by  the  aborigines.”  History  of  the  Empire  of 
Japan,  p.  78. 

19  “In  the  early  ages  of  Japanese  society  there  was  no  distinction  be- 
tween farmers  and  warriors : all  able-bodied  farmers  were  then  trained 
fighting-men,  ready  for  war  at  any  moment.”  Hearn,  Japan,  p.  268. 


52 


as  his  retainers.  Obviously  a small  farmer  could  not  defend 
himself  against  aggression,  and  he  accordingly  allied  himself 
to  some  more  powerful  person.  All  land  belonging  to  the 
emperor,  a strong  person  had  no  right  to  it  more  than  a weak 
one;  thus  the  only  difference  between  a samurai-farmer  and  a 
daimyo  was  that  the  latter  was  usually  able  to  secure  a title 
from  the  emperor  whereas  the  former  stood  in  feudal  rela- 
tions with  only  his  feudal  lord,  whose  vassal  he  became.20 
Some  daimyos  continued  to  be  farmers,  letting  out  the  land 
to  tenants,  but  in  some  cases  they  had  under  them  and  gave 
protection  to  farmers  who  held  more  land  than  themselves, 
on  condition  that  a certain  number  of  fighting-men  be  fur- 
nished. Sometimes  these  barons  gave  up  their  titles21  as 
daimyos  and  became  farmers  again.22 

The  daimyo  gave  his  vassals  support  on  condition  of  mili- 
tary service.  If  anyone  was  already  in  control  of  a piece  of 
land,  large  or  small,  he  was  usually  not  disturbed,  but  dis- 
charged his  obligations  by  supplying  a proper  proportion  of 
fighting-men,  of  course  going  himself  if  his  holding  was  small, 
and  if  he  could  not  send  his  son  or  some  one  else.  Some  able- 
bodied  young  man,  able  to  fight  and  wishing  to  attach  himself 
to  a daimyo,  might  have  no  land.  The  lord  would  reward  him 
with  a territory,  large  or  small  according  to  the  samurai’s 
bravery  and  ability.  Or  he  might  give  the  vassal  the  right  to 

20  As  the  shogun,  daimyo  and  samurai  were  all  military  men  and 
formed  part  of  the  same  system,  all  have  been  put  into  the  same  class 
as  fighting  men,  and  the  Japanese  themselves  in  past  times  occasionally 
referred  to  them  all  together  as  samurai.  Among  the  daimyo  and  the 
samurai  there  were  numerous  divisions  and  sub-divisions. 

21  There  were  territorial,  and  later  official  titles.  Some  daimyos  had 
both  titles  but  some  had  none  at  all. 

22  Often  the  military  chief,  with  his  adherents,  “ceased  fighting,  with- 
drew to  his  land,  and  became  a farmer,  keeping  his  rank  as  samurai, 
but  paying  a tax  to  a daimyo  or  the  shogun  like  any  farmer”.  Simmons 
and  Wigmore,  Land  Tenure  and  Local  Institutions,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol. 
XIX,  p.  79. 

One  of  the  four  richest  men  in  Japan  to-day  is  the  descendant  of 
just  such  a farmer. 


53 


receive  the  income  of  a certain  area  of  land.  Where  neither 
of  these  methods  was  followed  a grant  of  a definite  amount  of 
rice  to  be  drawn  annually  from  the  income  of  the  lord  might 
be  made.  The  methods  of  procedure  were  not  uniform  and 
varied  according  to  locality  and  century. 

The  differentiation  of  samurai  from  farmers  was  gradual23 
but  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  former  was  recognized  as  a 
distinct  class  to  which  attached  rights  and  privileges  giving 
them  a position  of  superiority  over  the  peaceful  part  of  the 
population.  Ieyasu  made  them  the  masters  of  the  lower 
classes.24  In  some  provinces  they  still  continued  to  farm 
while  holding  samurai  rank,  but  nearly  everywhere  this  was 
forbidden,  as  it  was  rather  beneath  the  dignity  of  a samurai  to 
engage  in  agriculture.25  After  the  death  of  Ieyasu  the  classes 
were  so  fixed  and  distinct  that  it  was  no  longer  possible  for  a 
plebian  to  rise  to  the  rank  of  samurai.26 

23  “It  was  after  feudalism  had  been  ushered  in,  that  a class  of  pro- 
fessional soldiers  made  their  appearance.  Both  the  leaders  and  their 
retainers  trained  their  sons  in  their  own  profession  which  therefore 
became  a hereditary  one.”  H.  Yamawaki,  Japan  in  the  Beginning  of 
the  Twentieth  Century , p.  619. 

24  “The  samurai  are  the  masters  of  the  four  classes.  Agricultural- 
ists, artisans,  and  merchants  may  not  behave  in  a rude  manner  towards 
samurai.  The  term  for  a rude  man  is  ‘other  than  expected  fellow’ ; and 
a samurai  is  not  to  be  interfered  with  in  cutting  down  a fellow  who  has 
behaved  to  him  in  a manner  other  than  is  expected. 

The  samurai  are  grouped  into  direct  retainers,  secondary  retainers 
and  nobles  of  high  and  low  grade ; but  the  same  line  of  conduct  is 
equally  allowable  to  them  all  towards  an  ‘other  than  excepted  fellow’.” 
Legacy,  Chap.  45. 

25  It  is  clear  that  there  was  no  natural  or  logical  development  from 
farmer  to  samurai,  or  vice  versa. 

26  “In  1540  A.  D.  the  demarcation  between  the  samurai,  or  the  warrior 
class,  and  the  farmer,  or  between  the  samurai  and  the  artisan  or  mer- 
chant, was  by  no  means  a strict  one.  Any  plebian  that  could  prove 
himself  a first-class  fighting-man  was  then  willingly  received  into  the 
armed  comitatus  which  every  feudal  potentate  was  eager  to  attach  to 

himself  and  to  his  flag It  was  only  in  the  sixteenth  century  that 

the  wearing  of  two  swords  was  confined  to  the  select  and  privileged 
class  of  the  samurai Down  to  the  death  of  Ieyasu  in  1616 


54 


The  term  samurai  applies  to  the  whole  of  the  class  whose 
privilege  it  was  to  carry  arms,  a long  and  a short  sword.27 
These  weapons  were  more  to  him  than  all  else  beside,  for  they 
were  the  symbol  of  honor  and  all  that  made  life  dear.  His 
family  must  be  disregarded,  he  himself  must  be  willing  to  fall 
rather  than  suffer  dishonor.28  Sometimes  his  own  short 
sword  used  by  and  upon  himself  was  the  instrument  by  which 
he  won  undying  fame.  His  life  was  not  his  own  but  belonged 
to  his  lord  whose  retainer  he  was.  It  is  easy  to  see  that, 
assuming  that  a military  class  is  desirable,  Japan  had  in  this 
samurai  spirit,  coupled  with  other  high  ideals  which  were  in 
her  possession,  the  basis  for  a military  system  second  to  none 
the  world  has  yet  seen. 

Large  land-holders,  corresponding  in  many  respects  to  the 
yeomen  of  England,  became  upper  class  samurai,  a few  of 
them  daimyo,  while  the  smaller  farmers,  working  in  the  fields 
and  inured  to  hardships,  filled  the  ranks.  Other  able-bodied 
persons  of  menial  occupations  were  attracted  by  the  life  of  the 
soldier  and  took  up  arms.29  These  rude  men  came  to  feel  the 
weight  of  the  dignity  imposed  upon  them.  To  be  honorable, 
in  the  fullest  and  broadest  use  of  the  term,  they  must  be 
trained  in  many  ways.  Swordmanship  was  supplemented  by 

any  man  of  ability  and  of  mettle  could  carve  out  a career  for  himself.” 
J.  Murdoch,  History  of  Japan  during  the  Century  of  Early  Foreign 
Intercourse,  p.  31. 

27  “A  girded  sword  is  the  living  soul  of  a samurai.  In  the  case  of  a 
samurai  forgetting  his  sword,  act  as  is  appointed;  it  may  not  be  over- 
looked.” Legacy,  Chap.  37. 

28  This  was  not  mere  sentiment,  as  it  too  often  becomes  in  the  hands 
of  many  Westerners  who  write  about  it  to-day.  To  the  samurai  it  was 
real,  it  was  life  itself.  This  spirit  is  by  no  means  dead  yet,  for  when 
a few  years  ago  the  samurai  disappeared  as  a class  it  became  the 
property  of  the  nation.  In  the  late  war  with  Russia  it  was  manifested 
not  only  by  soldiers  who  belonged  to  the  former  samurai  families  but 
also  by  those  who  came  from  the  farm  and  the  shop. 

“In  Japan  the  samurai  soul  yet  pervades  in  full  force  the  very  life 
of  the  nation.”  A.  M.  Knapp,  Feudal  and  Modern  Japan,  Vol.  I,  p.  51. 

29  “They  must  originally  have  been  a rough  breed  who  made  fighting 
their  vocation.”  Nitobe,  Bushido,  p.  5. 


55 


discipline  in  other  knightly  virtues.  Knowledge  was  not  to  be 
prized  for  its  own  sake.  The  ethical  code  of  the  samurai — 
Bushido — determined  the  standards  of  his  conduct.30  Con- 
fucianism made  over  by  the  Japanese  under  the  influence  of 
Chinese  philosophers  of  the  twelfth  century,  became  his 
creed.31  During  the  long  peace  of  two  and  a half  centuries 
preceding  the  Restoration  Confucianism  was  the  national 
philosophy  and,  it  might  almost  be  said,  religion.  Buddhism, 
which  for  a thousand  years  had  been  in  alliance  with  Con- 
fucianism in  controlling  the  national  life  became  antagonistic, 
but  it  waned  as  Confucianism  gained  strength.  A coterie  of 
native  scholars  strove  to  revive  Shinto  in  opposition  to  this 
foreign  philosophy.  Confucianism  held  the  field,  and  has  yet 
in  Japan  greater  power  over  the  thought  and  life  of  the  older 
persons  of  the  educated  class  than  any  other  single  influence.32 

30  “Their  only  duty  was  to  make  themselves  physically  and  mentally 
fit  for  their  lords  in  time  of  necessity,  and  in  times  of  peace  to  make 
themselves  as  much  like  gentlemen  as  possible.  In  other  words  physi- 
cal training  and  mental  enlightenment,  together  with  the  refinement  of 
their  manners  and  habits,  were  their  sole  business — they  had  no  other 
occupation.”  K.  Suyematsu,  The  Ethics  of  Japan. 

31  "Devotion  unto  death  is  the  chief  of  virtues  for  them,- — and  only  as 
we  understand  their  ideals  can  we  know  the  life  of  the  people.  Con- 
fucianism gave  these  scholars  a completed  system  which  made  right- 
eousness ultimate  and  supreme ; their  instincts  interpreted  and  the 
history  of  the  past  illustrated  the  teaching, — as  Buddhism  had  incor- 
porated the  ancient  gods  in  its  own  beliefs,  so  did  the  Chinese  philoso- 
phy in  Japan  adopt  as  its  own  the  heroes  of  the  feudal  wars.  In  both 
instances  the  native  element  transformed  the  foreign  system.”  Knox, 
Japanese  Life  in  Town  and  Country , p.  121. 

33  “The  system  which  for  three  hundred  years  has  exercised  the 
most  powerful  influence  in  forming  the  Japan  which  now  is,  was  the 
teachings  of  Confucius  as  set  forth  by  the  Chinese  philosophers  of  the 
twelfth  century  A.D.  But  Confucianism  never  became  the  religion 
of  the  multitude,  and  in  the  modern  era  its  philosophy  has  given  way 
to  the  learning  of  the  West.”  Knox,  Religion  in  Japan,  p.  3. 

A Japanese  wrote  last  year  in  the  Yomiuri  Shimbun : — “Up  to  the 
Restoration  it  was  Confucianism  that  governed  ethical  thought,  the 
two  religions,  Shintoism  and  Buddhism,  having  little  influence  in  this 
direction.  That  which  is  called  Bushido,  a system  of  morals  unique 


56 


The  military  spirit  permeated  the  whole  of  society,  and  all 
that  was  best  found  expression  in  the  life  of  the  samurai. 
With  their  families  totaling  about  two  millions  out  of  a popu- 
lation of  about  twenty-seven  millions,33  the  samurai  formed 
the  upper  middle  class.  To  maintain  this  spirit  occasional 
fighting  wras  necessary.34  The  flower  might  bloom  in  an  era 
of  peace  but  an  enduring  peace  involves  its  decay.  This 
actually  happened  in  Japan.  The  Tokugawa  period,  lasting 
tw'O  hundred  and  seventy  years  and  ending  only  with  the 
Restoration,  is  said  to  have  been  the  most  peaceful  era  in  the 
history  of  mankind.33  Wars  were  only  a memory  and  the 

in  the  world,  had  its  origin  in  Confucianism.  Other  effects  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Confucius  are,  the  establishment  of  social  ranks,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  a proper  sense  of  shame,  and  the  production  of  a spirit  of 
indifference  to  poverty  and  hardships.  We  Orientals  have  reason  to  be 
proud  of  the  fact  that  we  have  produced  a spiritual  and  practical  civ- 
ilization in  contrast  with  the  material  and  formal  civilization  of  the 
Occident.  The  morality  of  Confucianism  transcends  utility,  experience 
and  mere  bread  for  the  body.” 

33  ‘‘Statistics  show  that  some  six  hundred  thousand  samurai  families 
had  to  be  supported  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  fiefs,  and  that  a muster 
of  all  military  men  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty-five  would 
have  produced  a force  nearly  a million  strong.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  IV,  p.  n. 

31  Compare  the  view  of  Bagehot : “War  both  needs  and  generates 
certain  virtues ; not  the  highest,  but  what  may  be  called  the  preliminary 
virtues,  as  valour,  veracity,  the  spirit  of  obedience,  the  habit  of  discip- 
line. Any  of  these,  and  of  others  like  them,  when  possessed  by  a 
nation,  and  no  matter  how  generated,  will  give  them  a military  advan- 
tage, and  make  them  more  than  likely  to  stay  in  the  race  of  nations. 

The  success  of  the  nations  which  possess  these  martial  virtues 

has  been  the  great  means  by  which  their  continuance  has  been  secured 
in  the  world,  and  the  destruction  of  the  opposite  vices  insured  also. 
Conquest  is  the  missionary  of  valour,  and  the  hard  impact  of  military 
virtues  beats  meanness  out  of  the  world.”  Physics  and  Politics,  pp.  74- 
75- 

35  The  Tokugawa  shoguns  have  been  called  tyrants,  more  desirous 
of  keeping  the  control  of  the  realm  in  their  own  family  than  of  ad- 
vancing the  interests  of  the  mass  of  the  people.  Certainly  theirs  was 
a policy  of  suppression  involving  the  keeping  down  of  able  and  ambi- 
tious persons  who  might  dispute  their  right  to  the  control  of  affairs. 
From  this  standpoint  it  was  an  injurious  peace. 


57 


decay  of  the  military  system  was  inevitable.  The  samurai 
began  to  live  in  vice  and  profligacy.38  As  great  fighters  the 
samurai  would  hardly  rouse  our  admiration,  and  their  tactics 
on  the  field  of  battle  would  not  by  us  be  regarded  as  skillful. 
It  was  as  an  individual,  guided  by  lofty  principles,  and  as  part 
of  a system  that  the  samurai  appeals  to  us,  and  his  spirit  is  the 
precious  heritage  of  the  Japan  of  today.37  When  the  country 
was  opened  in  1854  the  spirit  was  alive  in  the  nation,  but  the 
samurai  was  a relic  of  a bygone  day.  Thousands  of  them  were 
no  longer  retainers  of  feudal  lords,  but  unattached  and 
irresponsible  were  living  on  the  privileges  and  dignity  of  the 
class.  Foreigners  looked  on  in  wonder  and  disgust.38 

The  farmer  has  always  been  respected  in  Japan,  and  the 
importance  of  his  occupation  never  overlooked.  The  provis- 
ions made  in  every  era  to  encourage  and  help  the  agricultural 
class  were  sometimes  for  the  purpose  of  securing  more  from 
them  ; but  even  then  there  was  a feeling  of  gratitude  to  the 
cultivator  of  the  soil.  Recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  national 
prosperity  depended  on  agriculture  enlisted  the  sympathy 
of  the  upper  classes  and  gave  an  honored  place  to  the 
farmer.  Failure  of  the  crops  was  regarded  as  a national  loss 
and  the  farmer  was  relieved  in  large  measure  from  the 
incidence  of  crop  failure.  Rulers  and  the  upper  classes  often 
adopted  strict  measures  of  economy  to  relieve  the  loss  of  the 
farmers.  On  the  whole,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  in  no  land 
have  the  peasants  received  greater  consideration  than  in  Japan. 
That  most  of  the  samurai  came  from  the  farming  class  kept  the 
latter  high  in  public  esteem.  In  some  places  the  line  of 

38  “The  loyalty  and  courage  of  the  samurai,  his  noble  contempt  for 
money,  his  simple  habits  and  frugal  life  had  constituted  a moral  title  to 

the  position  which  he  occupied Long  continued  peace  deprived 

him  of  his  uses  and  poverty  brought  him  into  contempt.”  Brinkley, 
Vol.  HI,  pp.  145,  I5I- 

37  They  call  it  Yamato  Damashii,  the  Japanese  spirit. 

38  The  opinions  of  several  are  cited : “The  samurai  were  rapidly 
degenerating  into  a herd  of  voluptuous  imbeciles.”  “Bushido  had  gone 
to  seed.”  “They  are  ‘swashbucklers’.” 


58 


demarcation  never  became  very  distinct,  and  while  a farmer 
after  the  time  of  Ieyasu  might  not  become  a samurai,  the  latter 
might  again  take  up  farming.  That  no  degradation  attached 
to  his  occupation  made  the  farmer  contented  and  willing  to 
work  for  the  welfare  of  his  own  family  and  of  society.  The 
proud  samurai  might  live  and  die  for  honor’s  sake  but  to  the 
farmer  belonged  the  task  of  cooperating  with  nature  in  pro- 
ducing necessary  food  for  all.  Beneath  him  were  many 
lower  classes,  and  without  government  permission  he  could 
not  if  he  desired  lower  himself  by  becoming  a merchant.39 
His  self-respect  was  enhanced  by  the  privilege  which  the 
farmers  enjoyed  of  being  largely  self-governing;  the  affairs  of 
state  gave  them  little  concern  and  they  were  allowed  practic- 
ally to  make  their  own  laws,  for  any  custom  of  fifty  years’ 
standing  was  not  interfered  with  by  the  authorities.40 

The  chief  agricultural  product  from  the  beginning  has  been 
rice  and,  while  tilling  the  fields  is  not  easy  labor,  it  has  always 
been  possible  to  cultivate  a sufficient  quantity  of  this  cereal  to 
support  the  entire  population.  If  instead  of  the  divisions  that 
existed  because  of  feudal  conditions  there  had  been  more  of 
mutual  helpfulness,  and  a little  more  foresight  in  providing 
for  the  future,  even  the  horrors  of  the  famines  of  former  days 
might  have  been  materially  softened  if  not  altogether 

33  Cf.  Knapp,  Feudal  and  Modern  Japan,  Vol.  I,  p.  80. 

40  This  bears  out  what  has  been  said  regarding  the  authority  of  the 
shogun  becoming  nil  at  the  point  farthest  from  his  capital.  “The  laws 
for  the  government  of  the  feudal  lords  and  their  retainers  (with 
which,  of  course,  the  people  had  little  or  nothing  to  do)  must  not  be 
confounded  with  those  affecting  the  common  people,  especially  the  laws 
relating  to  titles  to  land,  to  the  collection  of  taxes,  to  irrigation  and 
to  the  thousand  and  one  questions  involving  the  rights  and  privileges 

of  an  essentially  agricultural  community In  a vast  majority 

of  cases  the  people  themselves,  by  means  of  a system  of  arbitration 
which  they  were  encouraged  to  employ  instead  of  appealing  to  the 
established  courts,  were  the  executors  of  their  own  rights.”  T.  A. 
S.  J.,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  50.  We  must,  however,  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  heads  of  the  “neighboring  fives”,  after  them  the  heads  of  the 
villages,  etc.,  were  at  least  in  theory  responsible  to  those  above  them 
in  authority. 


59 


averted.41  The  land,  even  though  not  remarkably  fertile,  is, 
under  Japanese  cultivation,  abundantly  fruitful.42  More  than 
two  centuries  ago  Kaempfer  said  that  “no  nation  understands 
the  art  of  agriculture  better  than  the  Japanese”.  In  1775  the 
Swedish  physician,  Thunburg,  remarked  on  the  “great  state  of 
perfection  to  which  agriculture  was  brought,  but  was  dis- 
appointed that  the  fields  were  kept  so  free  of  weeds  as  to  afford 
very  little  chance  to  botanize”.  Not  even  “three  acres  and  a 
cow”  are  necessary  to  the  Japanese  farmer,  for  he  can  dispense 
altogether  with  the  animal,  and  with  his  family43  live  pretty 

41  How  similar  to  England  during  the  “golden  age  of  the  English 
labourer,  which  lasted  all  through  the  fifteenth  century.  Food  was 

cheap  and  abundant;  wages  were  amply  sufficient Although  it 

cannot  be  asserted  that  people  did  not  occasionally  die  of  want  in 
very  bad  times,  yet  the  grinding  and  hopeless  poverty,  just  above  the 
verge  of  actual  starvation,  so  often  prevalent  in  the  present  time,  did 
not  belong  to  mediaeval  life.  But  before  the  next  century  was  com- 
pleted part  of  the  nation  was  impoverished,  the  labourers  were  de- 
graded and  despoiled,  and  a long  legacy  of  pauperism  and  misery 
was  bequeathed  to  the  country  by  the  wastefulness  of  Henry  VIII.” 
Gibbins,  Industrial  History  of  England,  pp.  79-81. 

Toynbee  says,  “In  spite  of  the  ignorance  and  stupidity  of  the 
farmers  and  their  use  of  wretched  implements,  the  average  produce 
of  wheat  was  large.  In  1770  it  was  twenty-five  bushels  to  the  acre.” 
The  Industrial  Revolution,  p.  45. 

“But,  on  the  whole,  there  were  none  of  those  extremes  of  poverty 
and  wealth  which  have  excited  the  astonishment  of  philanthrophists, 
and  are  now  exciting  the  indignation  of  workmen.  The  age,  it  is 
true,  had  its  discontents,  and  these  discontents  were  expressed  forci- 
bly and  in  a startling  manner.  But  of  poverty  which  perishes  un- 
heeded, of  a willingness  to  do  honest  work  and  a lack  of  opportunity, 

there  was  little  or  none My  studies  lead  me  to  conclude,  that 

though  there  was  hardship  in  this  life,  the  hardship  was  a common 
lot,  and  that  there  was  hope,  more  hope  than  superficial  historians 
have  conceived  possible,  and  perhaps  more  variety  than  there  is  in 
the  peasant’s  lot  in  our  own  time.”  T.  Rogers,  The  Economic  Inter- 
pretation of  History,  p.  63. 

42  See  an  able  discussion  on  this  subject  giving  the  views  of  many 
authorities  by  E.  Kinch,  The  Agricultural  Chemistry  of  Japan,  T.  A. 
S.  J.,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  369-414. 

43  The  wife  and  daughter  share  in  field-labor.  The  country-woman 
is  never  idle. 


60 


comfortably  on  an  acre  or  less.  His  great  industry  and  even 
skill  have  been  favorably  commented  on  by  nearly  all  Western- 
ers who  have  visited  the  country. 

The  shogun  and  each  daimyo,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
the  title  of  all  the  land  was  vested  in  the  emperor,  were  in 
practical  possession  of  the  land  in  each  of  the  districts,  but 
in  the  last  analysis  the  farmer  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
the  owner  of  the  portion  he  lived  upon.  He  might  be  a per- 
manent tenant  but  he  was  forbidden  to  sell  it ; however,  in  case 
of  need  he  could  borrow  from  more  fortunate  neighbors  and 
thus  in  a sense  mortgage  it ; or  he  could  lease  it.  The  husband- 
man was,  however,  under  the  protection  of  his  daimyo  and  of 
the  shogun,  and  on  the  basis  of  an  average  yield  from  his 
fields44  he  was  required  to  give  a proportion  to  the  author- 
ities as  tax.  Land  directly  under  the  shogun  was  taxed  one- 
half;  daimyos  demanded  six  or  seven-tenths  of  the  gross  pro- 
duce.45 If  the  farmer  was  a tenant  possibly  half  of  the 
remainder  must  be  given  to  the  landlord.  The  farmers  in  the 
shogunate  territory  were  much  better  off  than  those  under 
diamyos.48  The  amount  paid,  in  rice,  was  usually  delivered 
without  murmuring.47 

41  What  Westerners  have  often  taken  to  be  the  revenues  or  incomes 
of  the  daimyos — in  some  cases  amounting  to  millions  of  dollars — was 
this  estimated  yearly  crop  of  their  districts ; it  simply  furnished  the 
basis  of  taxation.  This,  of  course,  does  not  apply  to  land  which 
the  shogun  and  daimyos  themselves  held. 

45  This  may  at  first  seem  excessive.  Out  of  what  the  daimyo  re- 
ceived he  supported  his  retainers  not  otherwise  provided  for  and  im- 
proved his  district.  When  in  1871  the  daimyos  surrendered  their 
fiefs,  at  the  same  time  being  relieved  of  the  support  of  their  retain- 
ers, and  were  granted  pensions  amounting  to  one-tenth  of  their  former 
incomes  some  sank  into  a state  of  poverty.  The  tenant  to-day  pays 
the  landlord  one-half  of  the  crop  as  rent. 

46  Some  daimyos  treated  the  farmers  with  excessive  severity.  “Per- 
haps it  would  not  be  an  exaggeration  to  compare  the  condition  of  the 
farmers  in  some  provinces  with  that  of  the  negroes  in  the  United 
States  under  slavery.”  T.  A.  S J.,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  60. 

"“Taxation  as  understood  or  felt  by  the  people  of  most  countries 
is  a burden  imposed,  a kind  of  robbery  of  the  results  of  hard-earned 


61 


The  details  of  agriculture  were  the  responsibility  of  local 
officials  who  advised  the  farmers  about  the  kinds  of  seed  and 
their  quality,  about  improvements  and  everything  pertaining  to 
the  best  methods.  Stimulus  was  given  by  awarding  prizes  for 
the  best  quality  and  yield  of  rice.  Thus  the  sturdy  farmer, 
forming  the  middle  or  lower-middle  class  of  society,  had  the 
respect  and  encouragement  of  the  aristocracy.  He  was  not  left 
in  ignorance  and  was  not  downtrodden,  but  was  a useful  and 
valued  member  of  society. 

That  artists  and  artizans  should  have  a lower  place  in  the 
social  scale  than  the  farmers  seems  strange  to  us,  but  such  was 
the  case  in  Japan.  This  is  all  the  more  surprising  when  we 
examine  the  arts  and  industries,  and  remember  how  these  were 
appreciated  by  the  Japanese.  Among  the  members  of  the 
hereditary  corporations  of  ancient  days  were  some  of  great 
skill ; their  successors  in  feudal  days  were  in  no  whit  their 
inferiors.  The  deliberate  policy  of  the  government  to  foster 
petty  jealousies  and  cause  less  and  less  intercourse  between 
the  different  daimyates  arrested  the  development  that  might 
have  taken  place,  but  the  people  had  ample  time  to  cultivate 
the  arts,  and  nearly  all  arts  that  have  made  Japan  famous 
abroad  reached  their  highest  development  under  the  feudal 
regime.  The  American  expedition  under  Perry  was  struck 
“with  the  number  and  beauty  and  perfection  of  the  products  of 
Japanese  industry  and  art".  The  nation  has  the  aesthetic  sense 
highly  developed.48  Whether  the  material  be  one  of  the 

means  of  the  people;  but  it  was  as  a rule  quite  differently  regarded 
by  the  people  of  Japan.  The  payment  of  taxes  did  not  seem  to  be 
regarded  by  the  peasants  as  a burden,  but  as  a loyal  duty,  in  which 

they  took  more  or  less  pride.  It  was  an  offering, a precious 

thing  not  to  be  defiled.”  The  time  of  the  annual  payment  of  the  rice 
at  the  collector’s  storehouses  where  each  farmer’s  rice  was  submitted 
to  inspection,  instead  of  being  an  occasion  of  sorrow  and  irritation, 
was  more  like  a fair  where  each  vied  with  the  other  in  presenting  for 
official  inspection  the  best  return  of  rice.  Ibid , pp.  58-59. 

4S  ‘‘Whether  good  or  bad,  both  in  design  and  workmanship,  Japanese 
art  carries  with  it  the  taste  and  the  aspiration  of  the  race.”  Y.  Ono, 
The  Industrial  Transition  in  Japan,  p.  48. 


f)2 


metals  or  clay,  wood  or  bamboo,  whether  the  workman  be 
called  an  artist  or  an  artisan,  the  product  was  a work  of  art.49 
It  was  art  for  art’s  sake;  not  for  a market  but  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  those  able  to  appreciate  it.30  Aritsans  enjoyed  the 
patronage  of  the  daimyos  and  vied  with  each  other  for  that 
privilege  and  honor. 

Carpenters,  blacksmiths,  and  other  workmen  belonged  to 
this  same  class  and  ranked  higher  than  the  wealthy  merchants 
by  whom  they  were  frequently  employed.31  There  was  no 
organized  industry  and  not  even  the  germ  of  anything 
approaching  a factory  system.  And  yet,  despite  the  arrested 
development  due  to  feudal  conditions,  the  artisan  class  added 
materially  to  the  comforts  of  life. 

Among  the  three  divisions  of  hcimin,  or  ordinary  people,— 
farmers,  artisans,  and  merchants, — classes  which  formed  nine- 
tenths  of  the  entire  population,  the  merchant  stood  lowest  in 
popular  repute.  Hardly  any  fact  in  Japanese  history  stands 
out  so  prominently  as  this,  that  the  Japanese  looked  down  with 
peculiar  disdain  upon  a calling  which  was  universally  regarded 
as  involving  gain  at  the  expense  of  another.52  To  them  com- 

49  “No  country  in  the  world  beside  Japan  can  boast  of  a living  and 
a highly  developed  art  that  has  numbered  upwards  of  twelve  hundred 
years  of  unbroken  and  brilliant  productiveness.  It  is  generally  sup- 
posed to  have  reached  its  culmination  in  the  hands  of  a group  of 
great  experts  who  flourished  during  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth.  It  was  the  era  of  the 
artisan  artist.”  Brinkley,  Japan,  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

50  “Like  the  samurai,  he  had  his  own  ideals,  and  his  own  status, 
and  his  own  way  of  life,  and  with  these  he  was  content,  not  being  en- 
gaged in  a scramble  for  more  money  or  a higher  position.”  Knox, 
Japanese  Life  in  Town  and  Country,  p.  194. 

51  Foreign  architects  and  builders  who  have  given  attention  to  the 
matter  affirm  that  the  Japanese  workman  is  second  to  none  in  the 
world. 

53  “We  may  safely  say  that  as  far  back  as  history  carries  us  con- 
tempt for  the  mere  business  of  money-making  was  a prominent  charac- 
teristic of  the  Japanese  people.  There  is  hardly  an  authentic  tale  of 
any  length  that  does  not  furnish  facts  proving  this.  The  merchant, 
the  usurer,  the  middleman,  were  regarded  as  the  pariahs  of  ancient 


63 


merce  and  trade  had  an  essentially  selfish  origin.  Each  party 
to  such  a transaction  would  be  seeking  his  own  advantage  and 
one  could  supposedly  gain  only  at  the  expense  of  the  other. 
Samurai  were  taught  that  it  was  in  bad  taste  to  mention  out- 
side the  family  circle  matters  relating  to  purchases  or  sales ; 
it  was  a mark  of  good  breeding  to  be  ignorant  of  the  value  of 
different  coins.53  Indeed  in  almost  every  province  there  was 
a different  system  of  weights,  measures  and  coins.  At  the 
time  of  the  Restoration  there  was  almost  indescribable  con- 
fusion because  of  the  hundreds  of  kinds  of  currency  in  use 
in  the  different  localities.  It  was  not  the  possession  of  wealth 
nor  the  use  of  it,  but  the  very  business  of  making  money  that 
was  despised.54 

The  Japanese  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
advantages  of  trade.  Early  intercourse  with  Korea  and 
China  had  shown  them  that  much  was  to  be  gained  by  free 
exchange  of  goods.  The  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  English  and 
Dutch  brought  them  the  products  of  Europe,  but  they  chose  to 
close  the  empire  and  restrict  the  volume  of  trade.  During  the 
period  of  seclusion,  when  useful  information  was  pouring  in 
through  Dutchmen  living  on  the  few  acres  called  the  island  of 
Deshima,  the  limitations  were  not  removed  but  on  the  contrary 
the  number  of  vessels  permitted  to  come  each  year  was  reduc- 
ed from  two  to  one.53  In  accordance  with  this  policy  of  isola- 

Japanese  society,  to  the  level  of  whose  life  the  noble  samurai  would 
rather  die  than  descend.”  Dening,  Mental  Characteristics  of  the  Jap- 
anese, T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  23-24. 

53  “Many  of  the  noble  houses  also  showed  their  independence  of 
vulgar  commercial  restrictions  by  using  measures  and  weights  of 
their  own  for  fiscal  purposes.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  VI,  p.  154. 

54  “Associated  with  this  absence  of  sordidness  are  some  noble  traits; 
a keen  sense  of  honour;  great  independence;  extreme  generosity  and 
unselfishness;  and  a taste  for  simplicity  of  living.”  Dening,  Mental 
Characteristics  of  the  Japanese,  T.  A.  S.  J.,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  24. 

55  “The  monopoly  the  Dutch  thus  secured  brought  considerable  pro- 
fits  Between  1609  and  1858  they  are  said  to  have  exported  over 

forty  million  pounds  sterling  of  gold  and  silver  as  well  as  two  hundred 
thousand  tons  of  copper.  Deshima  is  now  spoken  of  as  a gate  through 


64 


tion  the  Japanese  themselves  were  forbidden  to  build  sea-going 
vessels. 

Domestic  commerce  fared  little  better.  Its  history  even 
today  is  almost  a sealed  book.  Early  attempts  to  get  coins 
into  circulation  had  met  with  almost  complete  failure.  For 
more  than  six  centuries  there  is  only  one  mention  of  Japanese 
coinage,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century ; but  this 
experiment  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  successful,  for  the 
coins  did  not  circulate  as  freely  as  did  the  Chinese  coins  al- 
ready in  use.56  It  is  difficult  to  speak  with  any  assurance  of 
the  commercial  customs  of  feudal  times  before  the  seventeenth 
century.57  From  that  time,  despite  the  difficulties  he  labored 
under,  the  merchant  prospered.  Being  considered  a dishonest 
and  dishonorable  person,  it  is  but  natural  that  he  was  more  or 
less  devoid  of  a sense  of  honor.  He  amassed  a fortune  and 
stood  in  sharpest  contrast  to  the  samurai  who  lived  in  penury 
and  want.58 

The  Japanese  are  not  the  only  people  in  history  who  have 
looked  upon  the  merchant  with  contempt,59  but  it  is  difficult  to 

which  the  wealth  of  the  country  flowed  away  incessantly  during  two 
centuries  and  a half,  and  some  justice  must  be  conceded  to  the  defini- 
tion.” Brinkley,  Vol.  VI,  p.  169. 

5’  “The  income  of  feudal  lords  and  the  payment  of  rents  were  es- 
timated in  rice  as  late  as  the  time  of  the  present  emperor The 

actual  ‘money  economy’  of  Japan  may  be  reckoned  accurately  from 
the  Restoration  of  1868.”  Kinoshita,  Past  and  Present  of  Japanese 
Commerce , pp.  40-41. 

57  Brinkley,  Vol.  VI,  p.  153. 

58  So  recently  as  1876  a party  of  erstwhile  samurai  issued  this 
declaration :-  “An  eagle  will  never  become  a seed-eater,  but  will 
rather  die  of  hunger;  so  also  a samurai  of  honor  will  never  give 
himself  up  to  trade  or  any  such  occupation;  nor  to  other  things  which 
are  contrary  to  his  nature.”  In  proving  their  sincerity  many  did 
give  up  their  lives.  Cf.  Rein,  Japan,  pp.  369-370  passim. 

Many  samurai  who  took  up  some  small  business,  being  ignorant 
of  business  methods,  lost  their  all  and  fell  into  abject  and  hopeless 
poverty. 

“‘‘Trade  and  commerce  as  we  know  them  were  unknown  to  the 
Romans,  and  they  could  not  have  attained  any  large  development  un- 


65 


find  the  reason  for  their  clinging  so  tenaciously  to  the  idea 
that  sordid  gain  was  the  root  of  all  trade,  and  for  their  failing 
to  see  the  mutual  benefits  to  be  gained  from  friendly  commerce 
and  exchange.60 

The  relation  of  cities  to  Japanese  social  life  is  most 
interesting.  The  emperor’s  capital,  which  for  a thousand 
years  was  Kyoto,  was  and  is  a flourishing  city.  Kaempfer  said 
in  1690  that  it  was  probably  the  largest  city  in  the  world, 
but  today  it  is  not  more  than  half  its  former  size.  Kamakura, 
the  first  shogun’s  capital,  which  at  one  time  had  a population 
of  a million  or  more,  is  today  a village  of  ten  thousand  or  less. 
Many  of  the  castle  towns  of  feudal  days  are  little  more  than 
historic  names.  We  need  not  seek  far  to  find  the  reason 
for  this.  Naturally  population  and  wealth  would  flow  toward 
Kyoto  where  the  emperor’s  court  was,  and  toward  Yedo 
(Tokyo),  the  shogun’s  capital,  but  many  of  the  towns  and 
cities  were  near  the  daimyos’  castles,  the  sites  of  which  were 

der  such  an  organization  of  society.  Such  agriculture  and  manufac- 
tures as  existed  were  carried  on  mainly  by  slaves,  and  occupations 
connected  with  them  were  regarded  as  unworthy  of  free  men.  The 
higher  classes  in  Rome  looked  with  contempt  upon  trade  of  any  kind, 
and  passed  laws  forbidding  their  members  to  engage  therein.  It  was 
the  same  even  in  the  freest  of  the  Greek  democracies.”  Benjamin 
Kidd,  Social  Evolution,  p.  146. 

60  Kinoshita  puts  the  blame  on  Buddhism, — “The  spread  of  Budd- 
hism led  the  people  to  shun  the  pursuit  of  worldly  affairs,  since  the 
production  of  wealth  would  stimulate  the  desires.  Such  a belief  put  at 
the  heart  of  human  life  could  not  but  have  a profound  effect  upon  the 
growth  of  industry,  commerce,  trade  and  all  the  business  relations 

of  life The  Buddhist  priests  were  educated  representatives 

of  the  Chinese  civilization  which  they  taught  to  the  people  among  whom 
they  lived.  The  religion  they  disseminated  was  hostile  to  all  economic 
life  and  progress,  of  which  it  dried  up  the  very  fountains.  A high 
order  of  economic  life  and  material  welfare  must  be  developed  in 
spite  of  it  and  never  because  of  it.”  Past  and  Present  of  Japanese 
Commerce,  pp.  34,  35.  This  seems  hardly  fair,  for  the  Japanese  adapted 
everything  else  and  could  have  modified  this.  The  Chinese  at  one 
time  looked  on  the  merchant  with  disfavor  but  they  developed  com- 
merce and  trade  despite  the  influence  of  Buddhism.  This  age-long 
aversion  to  trade  seems  to  have  been  in  the  Japanese  character. 


66 


often  chosen  because  of  their  possibilities  for  defense.  Unlike 
the  burg  in  Europe  the  space  inside  the  wall  was  occupied  by 
only  the  feudal  lord  and  his  retainers ; the  artisans  and  mer- 
chants lived  outside  the  wall  below  the  castle,  while  the 
farmers  lived  scattered  throughout  the  territory  at  the  most 
convenient  places. 

The  lowest  class  of  society  was  made  up  of  outcasts.  Many 
Japanese  claim  that  they  were  foreigners  never  admitted  into 
the  nation  by  naturalization.  Possibly  the  tanners  who  came 
over  from  Korea  in  the  fifth  century  were  the  first  of  these. 
Every  person  who  had  to  do  with  skins  or  leather,  with  human 
corpses,  carcasses  of  animals,  etc.,  all  executioners,  keepers  of 
brothels,  beggars,  some  classes  of  criminals,  and  many  others 
were  included  in  this  class.  One  name  for  a large  division  of 
them  was  hi-nin,  i.  e.,  not  human,  and  the  appellation  was 
appropriate,  in  that  they  were  treated  as  if  they  were  not 
human.  Degraded  and  polluted  they  remained  outside  the 
pale  of  society.  They  lived  in  separate  villages  and  formed 
no  part  of  the  population,  for  their  names  and  numbers  were 
not  included  in  the  census ; when  counted  at  all  the  numerals 
used  in  counting  animals  were  used.  Even  to  give  them  food 
involved  contamination  and  no  Japanese  would  even  walk 
through  one  of  their  villages.  The  business  of  some  of  these 
people  was  of  such  a nature  that  they  became  enormously 
wealthy,  but  no  amount  of  riches  was  sufficient  to  give  them 
social  standing. 

Note.  Buddhist  priests  had  no  social  status  and  hence  no 
position  can  be  assigned  them  in  the  scale.  Generally  speaking 
they  had  rank  about  equivalent  to  that  of  the  samurai. 


6 7 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Changing  Social  Order. 

The  Japanese  on  an  area  equal  to  about  one-half  of  the  pres- 
ent Japanese  empire  developed  an  indigenous  civilization. 
Then  contact  with  outside  nations,  Korea  and  China,  gave  to 
Japan  a new  religion  and  the  pattern  of  a state.  With  the 
adoption  went  adaptation,  but,  although  the  indigenous  civili- 
zation was  not  altogether  overwhelmed  by  the  alien  elements, 
Japanese  scholars  today  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  wholesale 
importation  of  Chinese  ideas  at  that  time  was  somewhat  pre- 
mature and  excessive.  An  unexpected  result  of  the  trans- 
planting of  the  Chinese  bureaucratic  form  of  government, 
absorbing  the  power  of  the  emperor  and  eventually  handing  it 
over  to  local  potentates,  was  the  development  of  feudalism. 
Again,  in  the  sixteenth  century  Japan  came  into  relation  with 
the  outside  world,  this  time  with  Europeans.  Japan  had  been 
an  isolated  group  of  islands  in  ancient  days ; then  after  a few 
centuries  of  intercourse  with  the  continent  of  Asia  she  se- 
cluded herself  from  the  outside  world.  Later,  after  a brief 
century  of  intercourse  with  the  peoples  and  civilizations  of 
Europe,  she  shut  herself  off  from  the  influences  of  the  West. 
Another  period  of  development  followed  during  which  Japan 
assimilated  certain  elements  of  Western  culture,  a knowledge 
of  which  she  had  acquired  during  the  century  of  contact.  In 
her  institutional  life  the  imported  elements  have  in  many 
instances  transcended  those  which  were  native ; the  embryonic 
native  religion  gave  way  to  the  more  vital  system  of  Buddhism  ; 
Confucianism  filled  an  ethical  void ; the  Chinese  pattern  of 
bureaucracy  supplanted  the  tribal  state ; the  use  of  letters,  many 
of  the  industrial  arts,  and  their  technique,  all  came  from  with- 
out. Japan’s  whole  career  has  been  one  continuous  effort  to 


68 


assimilate;  her  invariable  attitude  has  been  that  of  apprentice- 
ship. She  has  twice  risen  out  of  a state  of  decline  and  started 
upon  new  periods  of  development.  In  each  instance,  however, 
traditional  Japanese  thought  was  strong  enough  and  yet  plastic 
enough  to  undergo  the  change  without  national  revolution. 

The  general  impression  until  quite  recently  was  that  in 
her  seclusion  Japan  was  asleep,  uninfluenced  by  and  ignorant 
of  what  was  going  on  in  the  West.  We  are,  however,  learning 
from  the  literature  of  these  centuries  of  supposed  isolation 
that  Japan  was  fully  cognizant  of  what  was  transpiring  in 
Europe.  One  condition  on  which  the  Dutch  were  permitted  to 
remain  at  Deshima  was  that  they  should  communicate  to  the 
Japanese  authorities  everything  of  importance  that  took  place. 
It  is  true  that  the  importation  of  books  generally  was  forbidden, 
but  the  purpose  of  this  prohibition  was  to  keep  out  every- 
thing which  might  in  any  way  help  the  cause  of  Christianity. 
Books  of  a scientific  nature,  maps,  etc.,  were  imported  by 
the  Dutch,  and  these  few  sole  representatives  of  the  Occident 
disseminated  scientific  knowledge  which  was  of  great  help  to 
the  nation  at  large.  A few  Japanese,  other  than  those  ap- 
pointed, and  therefore  contrary  to  the  government  regulations, 
dared  to  study  the  Dutch  language,  and  thereby  imbibed  the 
ideas  of  the  West.  The  rulers  had  an  intense  interest  in  what 
was  going  on  in  the  outside  world,  and  were  fully  aware  that 
sooner  or  later  the  intrusions  of  Western  civilization  were 
inevitable.  The  people  were  kept  in  ignorance  of  international 
relations,  but  for  a whole  century  before  the  country  was 
finally  opened,  Occidental  influences  were  at  work,  and  when 
the  time  came  the  Japanese  were  prepared,  however  unwill- 
ingly, to  break  down  the  barriers  they  had  erected  and  so  long 
successfully  kept  up. 

It  is  idle  to  speculate  as  to  what  would  have  happened  had 
not  America  and  the  nations  of  Europe  insisted  that  Japan 
should  open  her  gates.  The  forces  of  feudalism  had  reached 
their  ultimate  development  and,  altogether  apart  from  Western 
influence,  some  change  must  inevitably  have  taken  place. 


69 


Westerners,  however,  did  force  the  gates  and  the  whole 
country  soon  came  to  be  in  a state  of  turmoil.  One  large 
section  of  the  nation  was  for  driving  out  the  foreigners,  but 
it  was  soon  seen  that  this  could  not  be  done ; once  removed 
the  barriers  could  not  be  put  up  again.  After  fifteen  years 
of  stormy,  yet  on  the  whole  peaceful,  conflict,  during  which 
agitation  the  seeds  of  constitutional  government  were  sown,1 
the  shogun  resigned  and  the  emperor  was  restored  to  the 
throne.  Feudalism  and  the  shogunate  fell  together,  for,  only 
a few  months  after  the  so-called  temporal  ruler  surrendered 
the  reins  of  government,  the  feudal  lords  gave  up  their  fiefs 
and  the  eight  centuries  of  feudalism  came  to  an  end.  The 
imperial  decree  of  August,  1871  ran:  “The  clans  are  abolished, 
and  prefectures  are  established  in  their  places.”  The  former 
feudal  lords  for  a time  continued  in  their  districts  as  gover- 
nors but  this  was  only  a temporary  arrangement.  Here  and 
there  were  opposition  and  civil  disturbance,  but  how  well 
prepared  for  the  great  changes  the  people  were  is  evident 
from  the  rapidity  with  which  the  changes  took  place.  The 
pressure  from  without  of  the  forces  which  opened  the  country 
served  to  unify  the  nation.  Under  feudalism  there  had  been 
no  semblance  of  national  unity,  but  the  Restoration,  and  the 
accompanying  movements,  made  the  people  one.  Two  months 
after  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  fiefs  an  imperial  decree 
emancipated  the  lowest  classes  of  society  by  granting  citizen- 
ship to  nearly  one  million  outcasts  of  different  kinds.2 

Under  feudalism  the  policy  had  been  that  the  people  should 
be  governed  but  not  instructed ; the  masses  were  kept  in 

1 “Had  not  the  foreigners  come,  the  Restoration  might  have  been 
effected,  fedualism  might  have  been  abolished,  but  the  new  Japanese 
constitution  would  hardly  have  seen  the  day.”  T.  Iyenaga,  The  Con- 
stitutional Development  of  Japan,  p.  9. 

2 “The  legal  distinction  between  the  eta  and  other  persons  of  the 
lower  orders  was  abolished  on  October  12,  1871,  at  which  time  the 
official  census  gave  287,111  as  the  number  of  eta  properly  so-called, 
and  982,800  as  the  total  number  of  outcasts  of  all  descriptions.  Scorn 
of  the  eta  has  naturally  survived  the  abolition  of  their  legal  disabili- 
ties.” Chamberlain,  Things  Japanese,  p.  147. 


70 


ignorance  of  the  laws.  The  coronation  oath  of  the  Emperor 
declared  that  all  the  affairs  of  state  should  be  guided  by  public 
opinion ; that  all  classes  of  the  people,  upper  and  lower, 
should  be  united  for  the  common  good ; and  that  the  artificial 
and  absurd  customs  of  former  days  should  be  done  away 
with,  and  knowledge  sought  for  throughout  the  world. 

With  the  abolition  of  the  feudal  system  the  whole  struc- 
ture of  society  was  changed;  in  a measure  there  was  a return 
to  the  conditions  which  preceded  the  establishment  of  the 
shogunate  in  the  eleventh  century.  The  Japanese  realized 
that  while  their  country  had  been  standing  still  the  nations 
of  the  West  had  been  making  great  progress.  They  recognized 
their  own  deficiencies  and  realized  that  it  was  necessary  for 
them  in  a few  years,  or  at  least  a few  decades,  to  overtake 
the  West.  The  insufficiency  of  the  existing  social  order  with 
its  class  distinctions  was  especially  apparent.  Japanese 
scholars  had  seen  nothing  worthy  of  study  beyond  Confucian- 
ism, which  had  been  instrumental  in  setting  up  the  barriers 
between  the  classes.3  One  of  the  chief  objects  of  the  pres- 
ent educational  system,4  established  almost  simultaneously 
with  the  restoration  of  the  Emperor,  was  the  levelling  of  the 
different  orders  in  society  and  the  obliteration  of  all  class 
distinctions. 

Many  of  the  daimyos  were  admitted  to  the  same  rank  as  the 
former  kuge,  court  nobles,  but  as  few  of  them  were  qualified 
to  take  a prominent  part  in  affairs  of  state,5  they  practically 

’“Japan  discovered  her  helplessness,  she  discovered,  too,  that  the 
social  order  of  Western  peoples  was  totally  distinct  from  hers.  These 
discoveries  seemed  to  break  down  all  the  remaining  sanctions  for  her 

particular  type  of  social  order, — Confucianistic  feudalism So  long 

as  the  Shinto  ideal  of  nationalism  was  not  interfered  with,  the  nation 

was  free  to  adopt  any  new  social  order The  real  reason  for 

the  ease  with  which  the  individualistic  Anglo-Saxon  social  order  has 
been  introduced  has  been  the  collapse  of  the  sanctions  for  the  Con- 
fucian  order.”  S.  L.  Gulick,  Evolution  of  the  Japanese,  p.  413. 

4 Now  one  of  the  best  in  the  world. 

6 While  feudalism  was  decaying  the  real  power  in  each  district  lay 
in  the  hands  of  able  samurai  who  ruled  their  masters  the  daimyos. 


7i 


disappeared  from  public  view.  The  real  actors  on  the  national 
stage  were  prominent  samurai,  principally  from  the  southern 
provinces,  who,  while  restoring  the  emperor,  practically 
assumed  control  of  the  affairs  of  state ; this  control  they  have 
not  yet  altogether  reliquished.  Most  of  the  members  of 
Cabinets  and  many  of  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  past  few 
decades  and  of  the  present  day  have  been  the  samurai  of 
former  days.  The  minor  offices,  even  including  that  of 
policeman,  have  for  the  most  part  been  filled  with  men  of  this 
class.  The  right  to  become  a soldier  and  fight  for  the  country 
is  no  longer  that  of  the  samurai  alone.  There  was  opposition 
to  admiting  plebians  into  the  ranks  of  the  army,  but  today 
every  male  in  the  nation  without  distinction  of  family  or  rank 
is  expected  to  serve  with  the  colors.6 

The  population  has  almost  doubled  in  this  last  half  cen- 
tury, and  there  is  a steady  increase  of  about  one  per  cent, 
each  year.  Until  quite  recently  it  was  felt  that  the  economic 
future  of  Japan  lay  in  the  development  of  her  agricultural 
resources.  As  there  was  almost  no  other  way  to  invest  their 
wealth  many  rich  persons  bought  up  land  and  became  capi- 
talist farmers.  There  was  a continuous  move  of  the  popula- 
tion from  the  former  feudal  cities  to  the  country.  In  1886 
only  eleven  per  cent,  of  the  people  lived  in  cities  having  a 

It  was  the  old  plan  of  deputing  power  to  an  inferior,  who  came  to  be 
the  real  ruler. 

6 “The  system  of  conscription  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
Restoration  undertakings.  It  meant  that  the  400,000  families  of  the 
samurai  had  to  abondon  their  hereditary  rights  and  duties  as  soldiers, 
together  with  their  hereditary  fees,  given  in  rice.  Certain  sums  were 
allotted  to  them  from  the  national  finances  in  proportion  to  the  amount 

of  fees  which  they  used  to  receive The  people  who  suffered  most 

in  honor  and  in  interest  under  the  new  regime  were  the  samurai.” 
Japan  by  the  Japanese,  p.  106.  "Every  male  adult  in  the  whole  country 
shall  be  compelled,  without  distinction  of  class  or  family,  to  fulfil,  in 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  law,  his  duty  of  serving  in  the 
army.”  Her  last  two  wars  have  shown  that  Japan  has  lost  nothing 
by  requiring  military  service  of  members  of  all  classes  of  society. 
Even  the  Ainu  are  enlisted  and  follow  the  flag. 


72 


population  of  over  twenty  thousand.7  But  the  great  increase 
in  population  and  the  lack  of  large  areas  of  new  land  capa- 
ble of  being  brought  under  cultivation  has  since  1890  brought 
about  a decided  movement  from  the  rural  districts  to  the 
cities.8  More  than  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  entire  population 
is  still  agricultural.9  Improvements  in  methods  of  farming, 
and  government  encouragement  in  the  way  of  agricultural 
education,10  have  advanced  her  agricultural  prosperity,  but 
Japan  is  in  sight  of  the  limits  of  her  agricultural  resources.11 

7Cf.  Ono,  Industrial  Transition  in  Japan,  pp.  29  seq.  passim, 

8 There  was  no  Yokohama  a half  century  ago.  The  population  of 
Kobe  was  13,296  in  1879;  in  1903  it  was  283,839.  Osaka  has  from  a 
city  of  a few  hundred  thousands  became  a great  manufacturing  center 
with  more  than  a million  inhabitants. 

9 "Agriculture,  being  the  occupation  of  more  than  sixty  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  population,  is  indeed  the  greatest  of  all  Japanese  indus- 
tries; but  in  the  application  of  scientific  principles  to  agriculture  and  in 
the  proportion  of  land  under  cultivation,  Japan  is  far  behind  the  pro- 
gressive nations  of  Europe,  and  there  is  still  ample  room  for  improve- 
ment and  development.”  Sixth  Financial  and  Economic  Annual  of 
Japan,  p.  58. 

10  There  are  several  hundred  agricultural  schools.  The  Sapporo 
Agricultural  School  is  almost  of  University  grade. 

11  “She  will  by  and  by  have  to  look  abroad  for  supplies  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  Rice  is  the  staple  diet  of  the  people,  and  she  seems  to 
have  almost  reached  the  potential  maximum  of  her  rice-growing  area; 
for  in  spite  of  her  genial  climate  and  seemingly  fertile  soil,  the  extent 
of  her  arable  land  is  disproportionately  small.  She  has  only  eleven 
and  one-half  millions  of  acres  under  crops,  and  there  is  no  prospect  of 
any  large  extension,  or  of  the  yield’s  being  improved  by  new  agricul- 
tural processes.”  Brinkley,  Vol.  VI,  o.  217. 

“Agriculture,  however,  is  still  the  fundamental  basis  of  Japan’s  in- 
dustrial life.  To  this  industry  the  country  owes  its  ability  to  pay  its 
way,  and  but  for  the  peasant  farmer,  who,  by  a more  or  less  cheerful 
acquiescence  in  the  imposition  of  a land  tax,  made  it  practicable  for 
the  newly  formed  central  government  to  carry  on  the  task  of  adminis- 
tration on  a Western  model,  it  is  difficult  to  see  where  the  resources 
could  have  been  found  for  the  consummation  of  so  vast  a change  as 
that  which  has  occurred  during  the  last  thirty  years.  But  lately  there 
has  been  an  important  shifting  from  agriculture  to  the  manufacturing 
industry.”  Y.  Hattori,  The  Foreign  Commerce  of  Japan  since  the 
Restoration,  p.  68. 


73 


Further  improvement  will  help  matters  somewhat;  Japan  will 
be  able  to  feed  her  present  population,  and  perhaps  a few  mil- 
lions more,  from  the  products  of  her  own  soil,  but  her  future 
is  not  agricultural. 

When  it  became  clear  that  the  agricultural  resources  were 
not  capable  of  great  expansion  attention  was  given  to  the  mining 
industries  of  the  country.12  The  idea  entertained  in  the  West 
that  Japan  is  a land  of  great  mineral  wealth  has  been  dissipated. 
The  metallic  stocks  accumulated  during  centuries  have  been 
drained  away  in  foreign  trade,  and  there  is  little  encouragement 
for  those  who  formerly  thought  that  there  was  unbounded 
mineral  wealth  still  hidden  in  the  earth. 

Everything  seems  to  point  to  a great  industrial  future  for  the 
Japanese.  They  have,  or  can  produce,  nearly  all  of  the  raw 
materials13  needed  for  the  factories  they  have  already  estab- 
lished and  for  more  besides ; they  are  skilled  as  artists  and 
artisans  and  will  manufacture  in  large  quantities  articles  which 
will  find  a ready  market  throughout  the  world.14  Every  ef- 

12  “Mining,  now  one  of  the  most  important  industries  in  Japan,  was 
in  the  first  years  of  Meiji  still  in  a very  backward  state.  The  Govern- 
ment, being  anxious  to  promote  the  industry,  itself  owned  several 
mines  which  were  worked  according  to  the  most  recent  European 
methods ; but  they  mostly  proved  financial  failures,  and  to  avoid  fur- 
ther losses,  a majority  of  them  were  after  a time  sold  to  private  per- 
sons, in  whose  hands  they  prospered  and  brought  about  the  general  de- 
velopment of  our  mining  industry.”  Sixth  Financial  and  Economic 
Annual,  p.  69. 

13  “Japan  cannot  hope  to  compete  in  agricultural  productions  with 
those  countries  which  have  immense  territory.  Hence,  Japan  must 
rely  on  industrial  development  rather  than  on  agriculture,  and  must 
strive  to  excel  in  the  quality  of  goods  produced  rather  than  in  quantity, 
....Japan  possesses  all  the  advantages  necessary  to  make  her  a great 
manufacturing  country.  Her  people  possess  exceptional  skill,  and 
labor  is  relatively  cheap ; coal  is  abundant,  and  the  raw  material  is 
easily  obtainable  either  at  home  or  in  the  neighboring  countries.” 
Hattori,  op.  cit.,  pp.  78,  79. 

14  “Her  future  lies  undoubtedly  in  industrial  enterprise.  She  has  an 
abundance  of  cheap  labor,  and  her  people  are  exceptionally  gifted  with 
intelligence,  docility,  manual  dexterity,  and  artistic  taste.”  Brinkley, 
Vol.  VI,  pp.  217-218. 


74 


fort  is  now  being  bent  toward  the  development  of  the  various 
industries.  Factories  are  springing  up  everywhere.  Manu- 
factured goods  already  form  a large  proportion  of  the  goods 
exported.15  It  now  seems  that  Japan’s  economic  future  lies 
in  the  domain  of  manufacture.16 

There  has,  of  late,  been  a marked  rise  in  the  standard  of 
living  among  the  Japanese.  Economy  in  the  matter  of  expendi- 
ture and  simplicity  of  life  were  formerly  regarded  as  virtues. 
The  productions  of  the  Japanese  themselves  as  well  as  large 
quantities  of  goods  brought  from  the  outside  which  until  re- 
cently by  the  masses  would  have  been  considered  luxuries  are 
now  regarded  as  necessities.  The  merchant  has  thus  a wide 
field.  There  is  no  longer  any  contempt  for  this  class.  Some 
who  had  held  high  rank  took  to  trade  as  a profession,  and  as 
honest  and  honorable  persons  in  increasing  numbers  engaged 
in  this  pursuit17  all  contempt  for  the  merchant  class  disap- 
peared. Even  poor  boys  who  have  become  rich  in  business 
have  been  decorated  by  the  Emperor  and  some  of  them  fill 
honorable  positions  in  society. 

The  prohibition  against  the  building  of  sea-going  ships  was 
removed  in  the  year  after  the  Restoration,  and  Japanese  pro- 
ducts are  now  carried  to  all  parts  of  the  world  in  vessels  of 
Japanese  construction.  Foreign  trade  has  assumed  large  pro- 
portions, and  a large  part  of  the  exports  and  imports  are  car- 
ried in  Japanese  ships.  Not  only  is  this  the  case  but  the 

15  “The  export  of  manufactured  goods,  exclusive  of  raw  silk  and  tea, 
is  in  value  about  55%  of  the  total  exports.”  Sixth  Financial  and 
Economic  Annual,  p.  84. 

16  At  present  the  textile  industries  are  most  important.  There  is  a 
large  number  of  technical  schools. 

17  Honor,  integrity,  and  unwillingness  to  take  advantage  of  another 
went  with  the  samurai  contempt  for  money  and  have  been  carried 
with  them  by  many  who  have  gone  into  business.  This  has  been 
the  means  of  perceptibly  raising  the  standards  of  commercial  mor- 
ality. In  former  days  the  merchant  could  hardly  be  blamed  if  he  was 
not  honest. 


75 


carrying  trade  of  eastern  Asia  is  almost  altogether  in  the  hands 
of  the  Japanese.18 

The  levelling  process  is  thus  almost  complete.19  The  Em- 
peror, no  longer  a god  but  a strong  ruler  respected  and  rever- 
enced by  his  subjects,  sits  upon  the  throne.  Shogun,  daimyo, 
and  samurai  have  disappeared  entirely  except  in  so  far  as  by 
their  ability  they  are  able  to  command  influence  and  authority. 
The  social  scale  so  far  as  the  bulk  of  the  population, — heimin, — 
is  concerned  seems  to  have  been  almost  inverted.  Any  person 
irrespective  of  birth  or  wealth  may  now  rise  to  a high  posi- 
tion in  society.20 

Loyalty  to  the  feudal  lord  has  become  love  of  country.  The 
doing  away  with  the  feudal  boundaries,  the  abolition  of  all  class 
distinctions,  the  development  of  means  of  communication,  in- 
cluding railroads,  postal  and  telegraph  systems,  together  with 
the  use  of  a common  speech  have  made  the  people  one.  Their 
veneration  for  antiquity  has  fostered  love  for  the  national 
ideals.  There  is  a passionate  devotion  to  everything  Japanese 
which  causes  a national  self-consciousness,  so  exclusive  at  times 

18  “At  the  close  of  1903  the  country  possessed  657,000  tons  of  steam- 
ers and  320,000  tons  of  sailing  vessels,  making  a total  of  977,000  tons  for 
both  descriptions ; the  tonnage  of  the  steam  fleet  was  then  about  four 
times  what  it  was  nine  years  previously.”  Fifth  Financial  and  Econ- 
omic Annual,  p.  175. 

19  In  1885  five  orders  of  nobility  were  however  instituted  and  in  the 
official  records  registration  of  the  nominal  social  rank  has  been 
kept  up.  In  the  schools,  colleges,  and  universities  announcement  is 
made  at  commencement  whether  the  graduate  is  of  the  noble,  aristo- 
cratic, or  ordinary  standing.  In  1903  there  were  5,054  of  the  nobility, 
2.167,389  gentry,  and  44,547,568  persons  formed  the  remainder  of  the 
popuation.  In  each  case  all  members  of  the  family  are  included. 

20  In  the  first  House  of  Representatives  (1890),  made  up  of  three 
hundred  members,  there  were  129  farmers,  no  samurai,  19  merchants, 
and  1 manufacturer.  In  the  sixth  session  the  number  of  samurai  fell 
to  79,  the  farmers  increased  to  134,  and  the  merchants  to  24.  Cf. 
Brinkley,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  239  seq. 

To-day  the  highest  official  career  is  open  to  the  poorest  aspirant; 
many  of  the  most  influential  men  in  public  office  have  sprung  from 
humble  origin. 


76 


however  in  its  chauvinistic  manifestations  as  almost  to  inter- 
fere with  national  progress  and  development.  This  national 
feeling  embodying  most  that  is  best  in  the  samurai  spirit  of 
feudal  days  is  the  greatest  moral  asset  of  the  Japan  of  to- 
day.21 

Japan's  intercourse  with  the  West  has  not  resulted  in  un- 
mixed gain  to  her.  Much  of  the  beauty  and  charm  of  Japanese 
life  have  been  lost  forever.  The  new  conditions  have  brought 
about  changes  as  great  as  were  caused  in  the  seventh  century 
by  the  influx  of  Chinese  civilization.  The  Japanese  do  not 
wish  to  be  praised  for  what  they  have  been,  but  wish  to  take 
their  place  alongside  of  the  most  advanced  nations  of  the 
West.22  Japan  is  passing  through  an  industrial  revolution 
which  carries  with  it  all  of  the  problems  with  which  we  have 
to  deal  in  this  industrial  age  in  the  Occident.23 

21  Had  this  spirit  been  diffused  so  as  to  permeate  thoroughly  the 
whole  of  society,  instead  of  only  the  upper  one-tenth,  Japan  would 
have  been  even  better  prepared  to  take  her  place  in  the  family  of 
nations.  Overlooking  for  the  moment  her  deficiencies  it  is  well  before 
making  a final  estimate  and  forecast  to  emphasize  certain  points  of 
excellence.  Varying  estimates  would  be  made  by  competent  judges, 
but  the  following  from  Brinkley  is  moderate: — "Many  phases  of 
Japan’s  civilization  were  superior  to  the  civilization  of  the  West  when 
she  began  to  assimilate  the  better  parts  of  the  latter.  She  did  not 
bring  to  the  examination  of  the  Occidental  systems  and  their  products 
a mind  wholly  untrained  to  distinguish  the  good  from  the  bad.  In  her 
social  conventionalisms,  in  her  refinements  of  life,  in  her  altruistic 
ethics,  in  many  of  her  canons  of  domestic  conduct,  in  her  codes  of 
polite  etiquette,  in  her  applications  of  art,  she  could  have  given  to 
Europe  lessons  as  useful  as  those  she  had  to  learn  from  it.”  Vol.  I, 
P-  13- 

22  “Why  do  not  Westerners  praise  us  for  huge  industrial  enterprises, 
for  commercial  talent,  for  wealth,  political  sagacity,  powerful  arma- 
ments? Of  course  it  is  because  they  cannot  honestly  do  so.  They 
have  gauged  us  at  our  true  value,  and  tell  us  in  effect  that  we  are  pretty 
weaklings.”  Cf.  Chamberlain,  Things  Japanese,  p.  5.  The  Japanese 
accepted  the  standard  of  greatness  set  by  the  West  and  in  the  last 
twenty  years  have  largely  realized  their  ambitions  along  this  line. 

23  They  know  that  Ruskin  said  that  machinery  is  a curse,  and  Car- 
lyle’s words  picturing  what  he  thought  to  be  the  condition  of  England 


77 


It  would  seem  that  Japan  is  none  too  well  prepared  to 
cope  with  these  great  problems.  The  situation  is  full  of  perils 
and  it  may  be  questioned  if  her  present  social  organization 
will  be  able  to  endure  the  pressure  now  being  put  upon  it.24 
The  strength  and  weaknesses  of  the  social  organization  are  not 
on  the  surface  but  are  woven  through  and  through  the  social 
fabric.  The  two  greatest  problems  are  industrialism  and  in- 
dividualism. It  is  not  a matter  of  East  or  West,  for  both 
have  essentially  the  same  problems;  but  the  emphasis  is  dif- 
ferently distributed,  and  the  stages  of  development  and  the 

in  his  day  are  ringing  in  their  ears  : — “In  no  time,  since  the  beginnings 
of  Society,  was  the  lot  of  those  same  dumb  millions  of  toilers  so  en- 
tirely unbearable  as  it  is  even  in  the  days  now  passing  over  us.  It 

is  not  to  die,  or  even  to  die  of  hunger,  that  makes  a man  wretched 

It  is  to  live  miserable  we  know  not  why ; to  work  sore  and  yet  gain 
nothing;  to  be  heart-worn,  weary,  yet  isolated.”  Past  and  Present,  p. 
250.  They  are  fully  alive  to  the  dangers  which  threaten  them  as  an 
industrial  nation.  “Such  transition  carries  with  it  possibilities  of  evil 
as  well  as  of  blessing.  The  sudden  introduction  of  labor-saving  ma- 
chinery on  a large  scale  into  a country  whose  industry  has  grown 
independently  of  such  potential  factors,  must  cause  serious  disturbances, 
and  when  these  disturbances  are  exaggerated  by  misgovernment,  they 
are  liable  to  engender  social  evils  which  may  make  civilization  a curse 
to  the  multitude  of  the  people.”  Ono,  The  Industrial  Transition  in 
Japan , p.  14.  And  yet,  feeling  that  “only  among  industrial  people  are 
free  institutions  realized”  (Ono,  op.  cit.  p .13),  and  that  their  path  to 
greatness  must  be  industrial,  they  are  bravely  facing  the  situation. 
The  masses  are  not  holding  back,  but  are  following  their  dauntless 
leaders. 

24  “Into  the  old,  time-worn  wine-skin  of  feudal  bondage,  isolated  re- 
pose and  military  lethargy,  was  suddenly  poured  the  new  wine  of  in- 
dividual liberty,  international  commerce  and  industrial  activity;  who  can 
wonder  if  the  wine-skin  bursts?”  Nitobe,  Intercourse  between  the  U. 
S.  and  Japan,  p.  152.  “Never  before,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  human 
civilization  did  any  rulers  find  themselves  obliged  to  cope  with  problems 
so  tremendous,  so  complicated,  and  so  inexorable.  And  of  these  prob- 
lems the  most  inexorable  remains  to  be  solved.  It  is  furnished  by  the 
fact  that  although  all  the  successes  of  Japan  have  been  so  far  due  to 
unselfish  collective  action,  sustained  by  the  old  Shinto  ideals  of  duty  and 
obedience,  her  industrial  future  must  depend  upon  egoistic  individual 
action  of  a totally  opposite  kind!”  Hearn,  Japan,  pp.  511-512. 


78 


conditions  under  which  they  must  be  worked  out  are  not  the 
same.  The  marvelous  growth  of  Japanese  cities  calls  for  the 
exercise  of  the  greatest  political  and  social  sagacity;  factory 
labor,  especially  that  of  women  and  children,  involves  matters 
already  demanding  adjustment. 

The  foundations  on  which  the  social  system,  with  its  class 
distinctions,  was  erected  have  been  taken  away.  The  spirit 
of  loyalty,  now  patriotism,  has  survived  all  superstitions  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  the  sovereign.  He  performs  the  tradi- 
tional Shinto  rites,  now  more  ethnical  than  religious.23  Na- 
tional ancestor-worship,  fundamental  ideas  in  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  educational  system,  began  to  decay  with  the  down- 
fall of  feudalism.  Confucianism  has  been  found  to  be  sadly 
defective  and  non-adaptable  to  modern  conditions.26  It  never 
denounced  polygamy  and  concubinage  nor  respected  the  rights 
of  women  and  children.  It  sanctioned  certain  class  distinctions 
which  do  not  now  exist ; on  the  other  hand  there  are  new 
social  relationships  not  even  dreamed  of  by  Confucius.27 

There  is  no  recognition  of  the  worth  of  the  individual. 
Whatever  of  personality  is  not  swallowed  up  in  patriotism 
tends  to  be  absorbed  in  other  channels.  The  day  of  the  relega- 
tion of  human  workers  to  positions  analogous  to  beasts  of 
burden  has  not  yet  altogether  passed.  History  has  left  us  in 

25  “A  rudimentary  religion  of  this  kind  is  quite  inadequate  for  the 
spiritual  sustenance  of  a nation  which  in  these  latter  days  has  raised 

itself  to  so  high  a pitch  of  enlightenment  and  civilization The 

reverence  paid  to  the  Mikado  is  not  devoid  of  a religious  quality  which 

has  its  source  in  Shinto As  a national  religion,  Shinto  is  almost 

extinct.”  Aston,  Shinto , pp.  376-377. 

26  “The  influence  of  the  Confucian  ethics  has  been  waning  in  Japan, 
because  it  cannot  meet  her  new  conditions,  since  the  introduction  of 
Western  culture.  The  traditions  and  customs  of  olden  times,  which 
were  greatly  cherished  by  the  Confucian  ethics,  cannot  be  altogether 
maintained  now  by  the  more  progressive  spirit  of  modern  science  and 
philosophy.”  T.  Kudo,  The  Ethics  of  Confucius , p.  55. 

27  “In  our  social  life,  there  are  more  than  the  five  relations  which 
were  maintained  by  Confucius.  They  are,  for  instance,  the  relations 
between  different  nations,  betwen  capital  and  labor,  between  the  rich 
and  the  poor.”  Ibid.  p.  50. 


79 


the  dark  as  to  the  mass  of  the  people  in  past  ages.  There 
has  been  a gradual  emancipation  and  advancement ; now  even 
the  eta  and  the  Ainu  are  recognized  as  full  members  of  the 
nation.  Nevertheless  nine-tenths  of  the  total  population  still 
occupy  an  inferior  status.  All  social  relations  imply  acknowl- 
edged deference  or  superiority.  Since  feudal  times  there  has 
been  a worse  form  of  slavery  than  existed  ages  ago ; thousands 
of  females  are  actually  sold  every  year  for  immoral  pur- 
poses.28 

There  are  several  important  factors  which  will  help  in  the 
solution  of  these  momentous  problems.  After  some  years  of 
preparation,  Constitutional  Government  was  established  in 
1890.  The  people  not  only  share  in  the  government  but  ap- 
preciate the  privileges  of  representative  institutions.  The 
family  group  still  is  and  may  for  some  time  continue  to  be 
artificially  constructed,  but  as  a social  institution  it  will  make 
for  stability  in  great  social  crises.29  Universal  education, — 
among  a people  of  more  than  average  ability, — is  showing  ex- 
cellent results  and  may  be  counted  on  more  and  more.  Budd- 
hism is  once  more  becoming  active  and  a moral  force  for  good. 
The  long  despised  and  once  expelled  religion  too  offers  her 
help.  This  is  warmly  welcomed  and  may  be  of  great  assistance 
to  Japan  in  the  solution  of  her  social  problems.30 

28  It  is  a debatable  question  whether  the  Japanese  are  any  more  licen- 
tious than  other  races;  it  is  also  worth  considering  if  Japan’s  method  of 
dealing  with  the  social  evil  is  not  as  good  as  that  of  any  other  nation. 
But  the  fact  that  not  only  Japan  itself  but  the  whole  Orient  is  filled,  or 
being  rapidly  filled,  with  Japanese  Yoshiwara  shows  a radical  defect  in 
her  social  system. 

29  “Although  every  care  has  been  taken  to  preserve  the  old  family 
idea,  the  integrity  of  the  system  cannot  possibly  continue  for  many 
generations  to  come.  The  process  of  disintegration  is  already  going  on 
slowly.”  R.  Masujima,  The  Present  Position  of  Japanese  Law  and 
Jurisprudence. 

30  Christianity  has  been  given  credit  for  making  the  new  Japan. 
Doubtless  the  contact  with  the  so-called  Christian  nations  and  peoples 
of  the  West  has  been  of  great  benefit.  As  the  edicts  against  Christianity 
were  still  in  force  until  1872  greater  results  surely  could  not  possibly 
have  been  expected  from  the  efforts  put  forth.  “Christian  missionaries 


are  doing  great  things  for  Japan — in  the  domain  of  education,  and 
especially  of  moral  education : — only,  the  mysterious  though  not  the 
less  certain  working  of  the  Spirit  is  still  hidden  in  divine  secrecy. 
Whatever  they  do  is  still  of  an  indirect  effect.  No,  as  yet  Christian 
missions  have  effected  but  little  visible  in  moulding  the  character  of 
New  Japan.”  Nitobe,  Bushido,  p.  116.  There  is  to-day  religious  liberty, 
such  as  hardly  exists  anywhere  else.  As  far  as  Japan  is  concerned 
the  real  task  of  Christianity  is  still  ahead  of  her. 


8i 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Note. — The  thirty-four  volumes  of  the  “Transactions”  of  the  Asiatic 
Society  of  Japan  include  the  results  of  the  work  of  scholars  on  things 
Japanese.  The  best  work  of  the  small  group  who  have  given  to  the 
world  that  which  is  true  concerning  Japan  has  in  almost  all  cases 
first  been  read  before  or  presented  to  the  Society.  Later,  sometimes 
after  revision,  it  has  been  given  to  the  world.  In  all  too  many  in- 
stances one  or  two  truths  have  been  snatched  from  these  volumes  by 
tourists  and  along  with  their  own  “impressions”  have  been  made  into 
books  on  Japan.  Such  books  have  been  often  the  most  popular  ones, 
because  written  by  those  who  had  “visited  the  country”.  Compara- 
tively little  real  service  has  been  done  Japan  or  the  cause  of  true 
scholarship  by  those  who  have  spent  the  proverbial  “six  weeks  to  six 
months”  there  and  then  put  into  print  the  “information”  they  had 
gathered. 

The  monumental  work  of  Brinkley  in  eight  volumes  has  as  its  basis 
the  official  publication,  “The  History  of  the  Empire  of  Japan”,  which 
is  the  work  of  eminent  Japanese  scholars  and  which  was  translated 
by  him. 

Few  who  know  Japan  will  grant  that  the  general  picture  Hearn 
has  drawn  is  true.  His  Japan  did  not  and  does  not  exist,  but  his  last 
and  best  work  "Japan:  An  Interpretation”  is  valuable  and  must  be 
included  in  this  list. 

The  list  of  books  given  below  contains  only  works  of  foreigners 
who  have  resided  in  Japan,  or  of  Japanese. 

Asakawa,  K.  The  Early  Institutional  Life  of  Japan.  Tokyo,  1903. 
Aston,  W.  G.  Japanese  Literature.  London,  1899. 

Aston,  W.  G.  Shinto  (The  Way  of  the  Gods).  London,  1905. 
Brinkley,  F.  Japan,  Its  History,  Arts,  and  Literature.  VIII  Vols. 
London,  1903. 

Chamberlain,  B.  H.  Things  Japanese.  Third  Edition.  Yokohama, 
1898. 

Clement,  E.  W.  Handbook  of  Modern  Japan.  Chicago,  1903. 
Clement,  E.  W.  Hildreth’s  “Japan  as  it  Was  and  Is”.  Chicago,  1906. 
Department  of  Education  of  Japan.  History  of  the  Empire  of  Japan. 
Tokyo,  1893. 


82 


Department  of  Finance  of  Japan.  Fifth  and  Sixth  Financial  and 
Economic  Annuals  of  Japan.  Tokyo,  1905  and  1906. 

Griffis,  W.  E.  The  Japanese  Nation  in  Evolution.  New  York,  1907. 
Griffis,  W.  E.  The  Mikado’s  Empire.  Tenth  Edition.  New  York, 

1903. 

Griffis,  W.  E.  The  Religions  of  Japan.  New  York,  1901. 

Gulick,  S.  L.  Evolution  of  the  Japanese.  New  York,  1903. 

Flattori,  Y.  The  Foreign  Commerce  of  Japan  Since  the  Restoration 
(1869-1900).  Baltimore,  1904. 

Hearn,  L.  Japan:  An  Interpretation.  New  York,  1904. 

Hishida,  S.  The  International  Position  of  Japan  as  a Great  Power. 
New  York,  1905. 

Ito,  Count  (now  Prince)  H.  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution  of 
the  Empire  of  Japan.  Tokyo,  1889. 

Iyenaga,  T.  The  Constitutional  Development  of  Japan  (1853-1881). 
Baltimore,  1891. 

Kaempfer,  E.  History  of  Japan.  (The  original  in  Dutch,  1692.) 

English  Edition.  Ill  Vols.  Glasgow,  1906. 

Kawakami,  K.  The  Political  Ideas  of  Modern  Japan.  Tokyo,  1903. 
Kinoshita,  Y.  The  Past  and  Present  of  Japanese  Commerce.  New 
York,  1902. 

Knapp,  A.  M.  Feudal  and  Modern  Japan.  II  Vols.  Boston,  1897. 
Knox,  G.  W.  The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan.  New  York, 

1907. 

Knox,  G.  W.  Japanese  Life  in  Town  and  Country.  New  York,  1904. 
Kudo,  T.  The  Ethics  of  Confucius.  Tokyo,  1904. 

Morse,  E.  S.  Japanese  Homes  and  their  Surroundings.  Boston,  1886. 
Murdoch,  J.  in  collaboration  with  Yamagata,  I.  A History  of  Japan 
during  the  Century  of  Early  Foreign  Intercourse.  Kobe,  1903. 
Murray,  D.  The  Story  of  Japan.  New  York,  1894. 

Newton,  J.  C.  C.  Japan,  Country,  Court,  and  People.  Nashville,  1900. 
Nitobe,  I.  Bushido,  The  Soul  of  Japan.  Tokyo,  1904. 

Nitobe,  I.  The  Intercourse  between  the  United  States  and  Japan. 
Baltimore,  1891. 

Ono,  Y.  The  Industrial  Transition  in  Japan.  Baltimore,  1890. 

Rein,  J.  J.  Japan:  Travels  and  Researches.  Second  English  Edition. 
London,  1888. 

Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan.  XXXIV  Vols.  Yoko- 
hama, 1873-1907.  Referred  to  as  “T.  A.  S.  J”. 

Transactions  of  the  Japan  Society  of  London.  VII  Vols.  London, 
1896-1907. 

Yamawaki,  H.  Japan  in  the  Beginning  of  the  20th  Century.  Tokyo, 

1904. 


83 


The  following  have  been  used  in  comparative  study : — 

Bucher,  C.  Industrial  Evolution.  Translated  from  the  Third  German 
Edition.  New  York,  1901. 

Carlyle,  T.  Past  and  Present.  London,  1843. 

Gibbins,  H.  De  B.  The  Industrial  History  of  England.  Eighth  Edition. 
London,  1902. 

Rogers,  J.  E.  T.  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History.  London, 
1888. 

Toynbee,  A.  The  Industrial  Revolution.  Third  Edition.  London, 
1890. 


84 


